Marks Blog

I was going to make this a video, but I just didn't get it done. And I just don't feel like saying all of this to a camera. But it does seem like a waste to just delete it all. (I did get carried away.) I'm just going to just post this here on my blog. I am getting back into keto, or the Ketogenic diet. If you're not familiar with the keto diet it is a diet that avoids all sugars, pastas, grains, and carbs. I was, more or less, doing that diet from July through mid September. But I lost resolve (for lack of a better term) and I just kind of stopped doing it. I really wasn't planing out my meals or anything so I really started eating a lot of hamburger helper, and Velveeta dinners, and Mac and cheese and a bunch of pastas and stuff. And there are mental effects of the keto diet that I didn't notice as I was doing the diet. But the blah feelings I had been struggling with was interestingly enough the “brain poison” that I made a video about awhile ba

Waist: 53 inches Weight: 322.4 lbs BMI: 40.2 Breakfast: Pot of Coffee, 2x Hamburger Patties, shredded cheese Lunch: Jalapeno Popper Chicken Casserole Dinner: 8 Pack of Hot Dogs Notes: I haven't been doing my keto diet recently. No real reason why other than laziness. But I have been doing really good on it so far this month. Of course it's only a few days into the month so far so we'll see how long I can do keto and how often I will update this blog. I want this to be a daily thing. But it is surprisingly difficult to keep this log. I didn't exactly stick to my plan for dinner. I picked up a pack of hot dogs. I do have some food in my fridge that I could have had, but I just didn't feel like having the food I had. Which is a habit that I need to break. Not sure if these cheep hot dogs count for keto, but they have to be better than the mac and cheese or hamburger helper that I would have normally bought.

Weight: 329.8 Waist: 53 in Breakfast: Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes, coffee Snack: bagged salad, cheese, Ranch dressing Lunch: deli fried chicken, peach sparkling water Dinner: Philly Cheese Burger Hamburger helper, Kiwi Strawberry Sparkling water Notes: Woohoo! Finally under 330 lbs again. I haven't been under 330 since November. I'm going to see if I can stay under 330 for a bit before I change what I say what my new target weight is. I had a slow cooker cooking a pot roast last night, but my mother had invited me over to her house for dinner so I was able to set up a couple of servings of pot roast for today. However, when it came to eat the pot roast just didn't sound good at the time, but I will hold on to it for future meals.

Weight: 332.3lbs Waist: 54.5 Mood: excited Breakfast: Pot of coffee, ½ box Chili Macaroni Hamburger Helper 4oz shredded cheese Lunch: Crunchy Cheetos, Chili, Energy shot, Cherry Sparkling water Dinner: Sir Loin Pork Chops, Cheesy Ramen I always find myself in a great mood at the beginning of each month.  But I do think I can do this daily food blog.  I'm planing on using this to keep me mindful of what I'm eating.  And I know that the Hamburger Helper, Cheetos and Ramen isn't exactly on the diet that I want to be doing.  But I am sure that I can eventually work towards the foods I want to be eating.

Breakfast: none Lunch: Baked Deli Chicken, Energy Shot, Mixed Berry Sparkling water Dinner: 20oz Cherry Dr Pepper, 1/2 box of Chili Macaroni Hamburger Helper, 4oz Nacho Taco Shredded Cheese (Melted in the Hamburger Helper) burned the hell out of the hamburger in it. saving the other half for lunch tomorrow. Didn't get a chance to weigh in this morning, work woke me up offering more hours.  And I'm not really in a position to turn down work hours.  I really haven't been tracking what I've been eating lately (I haven't been doing much of anything lately) {outside of watching WAY too much YouTube} I would like to get more things done, but lately I have just not done things.  I have been wanting to do the Keto diet, but I haven't been planing out my meals properly so I keep falling back on bad Mac and cheese and Hamburger Helper habits.  And that's one of the reasons I haven't been doing this food blog thing.  I'm kind of embarrassed that I keep s

Weight: 340.7 lbs Mood: getting out of the tunnel (not sure if that makes sense, but that's the closest I can think of. Breakfast: none Lunch: Fried Chicken, Sparkling water Dinner: Velveeta Skillet Dinner Ultimate Cheeseburger Notes: I didn't get a chance to make breakfast this morning. My car insurance check and the rent check decided to both come through on the same day. And since I didn't budget the insurance well I was massively over drawn on my checking account. Luckily my bank has a program known as a “Fresh Start Loan” The fresh start loan pays off the negative balance of the account and sets up a payment plan. Unfortunately I don't have over draft privileges during the life of the loan, but hopefully I won't need it. And I an fairly confident that I will not be having this trouble again. The loan is going to be $50 a month for 13 months starting in November. And (if I did my math right) my car loan is done in August of next y

Weight: 341.1 lbs Waist: 54.5 Breakfast: 5 pack Cheddar Bratwurst Lunch: Deli Baked Chicken Dinner: 3x apple-wood smoked bacon cheeseburger patties, chili, 2 liter sprite Notes: I haven't been doing these recently, but to be fair, I haven't done much of anything lately. I think an idea I had to save me time has backfired on me. Trying to save my computer I had started adding all of the videos of the YouTube channels I am subscribed to to the “watch later” playlist. And now I'm a week and a half behind on my video watching. I even started a spreadsheet tracking how much time is left in the playlist. (currently at 2 days 15 hours 35 minutes and 6 seconds for 362 videos) and it is growing each day. I have been waking up each day staring at my watch later playlist until I have to go to work or go back to bed. So I haven't been getting my own videos done, I haven't been planing out my meals. I haven't even been cleaning my house.

Weight: 336.4 lbs Waist: 53.5 Mood: impressed Breakfast: Coffee with a tablespoon of coconut oil Lunch: Cheeseburger Patties, Bratwurst Dinner: Deli Fried Chicken Snack: Sirloin Pork Chops Notes: I haven't been tracking my weight loss or food intake like I have been wanting to lately. No real excuse outside of just being lazy. Which is a running problem for me. But I have been walking to work recently. I think that might have contributed to the FOUR FREAKING POUNDS I lost over the last week or so. I am excited that I am once again down for the year on weight and for the first time this year being down on waist. Feet still hurt, but I think that's more because my shoes are starting to get worn out than because of my weight. Although the walking to work might be adding to that a bit as well. I was a bit nervous this morning standing on the scale because I did break the Keto diet last night, eating a rack of ribs with mac and cheese and a 1.25

Weight: 340.2 lbs Waist: 54.5 Mood: Happy, yet slightly frustrated Breakfast: Coffee, pork chops Lunch: Bacon ranch chicken casserole Dinner: Green beans, Hamburger patties Snack: cheeseburger patties, Notes: once again I gained a bit of weight. It is slightly frustrating, I keep telling myself not to worry about the day to day fluctuations, but I get so close to making progress for the year, and then never mind. I am starting to make progress on my waist line, so I'll add that to the top stats I'm not sure why I wasn't including that anyway. I did manage to get one the recipe videos recorded like I wanted to. The recipe that I uploaded yesterday was recorded a couple of months ago. I want to be recording a video a week and uploading once a month. That way I have a long back log of videos ready to be uploaded. Spent the afternoon at Mom's house, she wants to start uploading videos. Or at least start doing live streams I'm a little

Weight: 338.8 lbs Mood: Rocking Breakfast: 2x hamburger patties, bacon ranch chicken casserole Lunch: Deli Baked Chicken Dinner: Pork chops, can of Foster's Beer Notes: Didn't get the new bed that my dad brought over. Unfortunately it didn't fit up the stairs to my bedroom. Dad seemed to be more upset about it not fitting than I was. He told me just put the mattress I have on the floor until I was able to buy a new frame for it. Which I felt kind of silly for not doing before. And I have to say that waking up this morning was SIGNIFICANTLY better that I have in quite a while. This feels strange to say but I was in such an up and rocking mood today before work I was getting angry and frustrated with people at work because they just weren't operating at my level. I eventually got used to being around other people, but it was rough going for a bit. I was also kind of frustrated because I was going to walk to work, but just as I left my hous

Weight: 341.6lbs Mood: Chill Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, coffee with Fiber supplement Lunch: 2 Bacon cheddar burger patties. Dinner: 5 pack of Hillshire Farm chederwurst, key lime sparkling water Notes: well, I finally got off my butt and cleaned my house (most of it anyway) My dad had bought me a new bed and is going to bring it over tomorrow and I didn't want him to come carrying a queen size bed through the tornado bombsite that has been my house recently. Who knows maybe the reason I haven't been very well lately is because I haven't been sleeping well. My old bed had a broken frame so I was sleeping on an incline and the mattress I have is considerably old. I don't exactly believe in Feng Shui (if that is the right thought process here) but I do have to say it is a lot less stressful to be in a clean house. Or a “cleaner” house anyway. Trying to avoid the bathroom (it be nasty) Getting back on track here. The last couple of days

Weight: 340.0 lbs Mood: Satisfied Breakfast: Fruit smoothie (Avocado, Spinach, Orange, Kiwi) 2 bacon cheddar patties with sliced cheese. Lunch: Deli Baked Chicken, sparkling water Dinner: 5 pack of bratwurst Notes: I didn't get the recipe videos done that I wanted to today mostly because I had a hard time waking up and getting going this morning. I have to say though once I got up and going as I walked to work I was a lot more mentally clear than I have been a lot recently. This lead credence to the thought I have had recently. The thought I have been having recently is the reason that I just can't seem to get anything done is the fact that I am just not getting up and moving. One of the reasons I had the burger patties with my smoothie this morning is that lately when I log my food for the day the apps are warning me that I am not taking in enough calories. But I still didn't get enough calories in today. That sounds like a good thing, but starvi

Weight: 340.6 lbs Mood: Tired Breakfast: Salad Bar (Mixed greens, chicken breast pieces, shredded cheddar, Ranch Dressing,) Lunch: Egg Stuff (½ dozen eggs, 1lbs pork sausage, 8oz shredded cheddar, small can Rotel) Dinner: Garden Salad with 4oz canned salmon, shredded cheese, ranch dressing Note: Slept better last night than I have in a while and was able to wake up and get to work. But the tiredness that I have been dealing with lately is more of a mental tiredness. I just can't seem to get the “get up and go” to get anything done. Again I didn't get a meal planned for lunch at work and my lunch was scheduled before the deli was open so I hit up the salad bar. I am not crazy about eating off of the salad bar when tracking my food. The salad bar is really good, so it's not about flavor, the problem is that it is a serious pain in the butt to log all of the things that I put on my salad when compared with just logging a single recipe or food

Weight: 336.6 lbs Mood: Disappointed Breakfast: Vega Shake with 1 cup of milk Lunch: Baked Chicken (Breast, Wing, Thigh, Leg) Dinner: 5 pack of Cheddar Brats Snack: 2xBacon Cheddar Beef Burger Patties with cheese Notes: I had work the opening shift at work today so I didn't really get a chance to make a full fruit smoothie, but luckily I still had some Vega meal shake left over so that's what I had for breakfast. Can't really say that I have been hungry for breakfast, or at all really. I just had breakfast because I didn't want to risk getting “Hangry” at someone and snapping at the wrong person at the wrong time. And it turns out that the store was getting the annual audit this morning. And I can tell you I was very self aware that I had slept in too late to have a proper shower and the fact that I hadn't had a chance to get laundry done in a while. But I guess the audit went alright, in fact I seemed to really impress the distr

Weight: 336.2 lbs Mood: Lazy Breakfast: Pot of Coffee Lunch: Pork Spare Ribs Dinner: Leftover ribs Notes: whoo-hoo for the first time this year I weighed less than I did at the beginning of the year. I didn't get around to posting yesterday's food blog because I kind of had to hit the ground running to get things done around the house and get to work, and then someone called in last night so I had to stay late. Didn't get much done today. It was a day off. It felt like the first day off in a really long time. I really just sat here watching YouTube all day. I did play a bit of Halo 2, but I started to get angry and frustrated with it so I went back to watching YouTube. Today was meant to be my day off, not the day to get angry at video games. It doesn't look like I ate that much if you look at what I wrote down, but that is an entire rack of Pork spare ribs. I was planning on going to the store and picking up the things to make a Keto BBQ

Weight: 341.4 Waist: 55 Mood: Satisfied Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie (2c Whole Milk, Kiwi, Orange, Baby Spinach), Pot of Coffee with Fiber supplement Lunch: 4 piece deli fried chicken Dinner: wasn't hungry Notes: Recorded a weekly weigh in video this morning so I really didn't have much time to do much this morning. But I did manage to get the dishes done so I did get a breakfast smoothie done. I didn't have a lunch planned out so I hit up the deli in the store. I think that the deli baked chicken is good for keto, but that was starting to get old so I went back to the old fallback of deli fried chicken which isn't as good for Keto because of the breading that they put on it. And for dinner I really wasn't hungry. A lot of the research I have done really discourages eating because it “is time to eat” and not because I was hungry. Some people would call that “fasting” But I do know that when I get up in the morning I am going to be

Weight: 344.6 lbs Waist: 55 in Mood: Calm Breakfast: Pot of Coffee Lunch: Grilled Chicken Breast Snack: Bacon Cheddar hamburger patties, a couple of cans of Bud light Dinner: Country Ribs, broccoli cuts, garden salad with peppercorn ranch dressing Notes: when doing smoothies for breakfast it is important to remember to wash the blender afterwords. I didn't get the dishes done yesterday and to be honest the main reason I had pork steaks for dinner last night was the fact I had no clean dishes left to cook with. And I'll admit that it is nasty to admit that my kitchen was filled with dirty dishes that were several days old. But I have not been managing my time very well. I did manage to convince myself to walk to work today. It was just a three and a half hour shift, so it was a short day. The hang up was I was debating whether or not to cook the spare ribs I have in my refrigerator. But the ribs take 2 and a half hours to cook and by the time I g

Weight: 344.6 lbs Waist: 55 in Mood: tired Breakfast: slept in, didn't get a chance for breakfast Lunch: 5x Cheddar Bratwurst Dinner: 2x Pork steaks (1.5 lbs), Couple of cans of Bud light, Brussels Sprouts, garden salad Notes: got called in early for work so I didn't get a chance to walk to work or get breakfast done, But I'm so desperate for hours at work I wasn't in a position to turn down any hours. I really didn't plan on having pork steaks for dinner, but I haven't had a chance to do dishes so I had to grill something and grilled chicken didn't sound that appetizing. But seriously I need to get on track on meal plans. If just for the sake of budgeting, just grabbing some steak after work because I didn't want the food I have isn't good for any of my strategies. My feet still hurt from walking to work yesterday. And working a split shift today didn't help much. Altogether I worked about 8 hours, which would hav

Weight: 345.2 lbs Waist: 55.5 in Mood: Confident Breakfast: Fruit Smoothie (2c Whole Milk, Kiwi, Orange, Baby Spinach), Pot of Coffee with Fiber supplement Snack: 6oz package of pepperoni Lunch: 2x Bratwurst, with Ranch dressing and Mustard as condiments Dinner: Bacon Chicken Ranch Casserole (https://joyfilledeats.com/bacon-ranch-chicken-casserole/) Notes: About a month into the Keto diet. I think I have been following the concept of the diet pretty well. The idea behind the Keto diet is eliminating all sugars and carbs in the effort to train your body to burn the fat stores already in your body. Supposedly the idea is that when you eat carbs it is converted to fat stores in your body and I have enough fat stored already. I have been excelling at avoiding carbs for the most part. There was a week when I picked up a couple of boxes of mac and cheese with hot dogs. And I only had a couple of sodas this last month, no where near the amount

Weight: 341.8 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: Middle Good Breakfast: None Lunch: Spaghetti Dinner: Roast Beef, mac and cheese, 1.25 L Pepsi Snack: Left over spaghetti, pot of coffee, sleeve of thin mint girl scout cookies, Goody energy shot, Notes: once again I slipped on the bad soda habits. I think I'm going to start leaving my Debit Card at home when I go to work. Since I'm bringing my lunch to work with me and I have a weekly meal plan there's no reason to bring a form of payment with me to the store with me.

Weight: 342.0 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: Middle Breakfast: Fruit smoothie, chocolate Vega shake Lunch: 4cheese/4 meat pizza flavored hot pockets 20oz Dr pepper Dinner: Chicken Breast, Parisian noodles with sauce, peas Snack: pot of coffee, sleeve of thin mint girl scout cookies, Kroger and Goody Energy shots Notes: Although I did manage to get a meal plan out and I did plan out a lunch for today, I forgot to bring the lunch to work with me toady so I had to eat hot pockets for lunch. And I did slip on the Dr Pepper temptation. But the only soda I had today (that is if you don't count the coffee that I had this morning which I do have with quite a bit of sugar in it)

Weight: 347.4 Waist: 57 Mood: frustrated and disappointed Breakfast: Vanilla Vega Shake with 1 cup milk Lunch: Mexican Alfredo, 20oz Dr pepper, Reese's Chocolate egg, goody's energy shot Dinner: Pork Chops, mac and cheese Snack: 1.25 L Dr Pepper, Kroger energy shot Notes: fell to the temptation of some energy shots. And drank some soda. Which is frustrating because back in February I went an entire 2 weeks without any caffeine, but now here in March I just cannot break bad habits. I'm sure that now that I have a meal plan going I'll be able to do better.

Weight: 345.8 Waist: Mood: Satisfied Breakfast: none Lunch: Ramen Dinner: Hamburger Velveeta skillet dinner with salsa and sour cream Notes: I finally managed to take inventory of my freezer and make a meal plan for the week. And it is a good thing that I did manage to do so. I just barely had enough for a full week of 14 meals. I have a few more servings of fruit for morning smoothies. I'm debating wither or not to continue the full fruit smoothies. Fruit can be quite expensive. Perhaps I should just have the Vega shakes alone. I forgot to take breakfast this morning. I did start drinking more water. I have long heard that drinking at least a gallon a day will help loose weight. And I have to say that I have been feeling a lot better this evening after I started drinking more, but it probably help with this evening's weigh in. I slept in a bit more than I should have again. I want to start waking up around 5am, but I just haven'

Weight: 344.0 Waist: 56 in Mood: good Breakfast: Taco Bake Lunch: Chocolate vega shake Avocado, Banana, Kale, Orange smoothie. Dinner: Mac and cheese with jalapeno hot dogs Can of fosters Snack: Notes: I am starting the day determined to go without caffeine. That's the whole point of this blog anyway. I didn't start the day today with the glowing attitude that I started yesterday with, but I was still doing pretty good. I finished recording recipe videos. The second Monday of every month I want to upload a video of a recipe that I've came across. I didn't exactly manage to get a weekly meal plan together, but I do have a couple of meals out of the freezer for tomorrow. I did avoid caffeine today. It is a lot easier in customer service where I am literally locked away from the energy shots and had a work day that was too short get get a break.  I am curious as to who is reading these.  I am sharing these to Facebook, but I'm ge

Weight: 347.0 Waist: 57 in Mood: Positive Brunch: Fried Chicken, Flavored water, energy shot Dinner: KC Strip Steak (it was on sale), Knorr Beef Stroganoff noodles Snack: Girl Scout Thin Mints Cookies, 1.25 L Coke, energy shot. Notes: I woke up early this morning, early enough to get a weekly weigh in video done. But I didn't manage to get my fruit smoothie made. I did manage to get a couple of meal servings out of the freezer last night, but they were still frozen when I had to leave for work this morning. So I had fried chicken for lunch today. It's a very cost effective meal, but not very healthy. I am glad that I'll have a meal ready for tomorrow though. And starting tomorrow I'm going to go back to a hard quit on caffeine again. I really can't call this blog series “quitting soda” if I keep drinking soda like I have been. Sure my soda intake has dropped considerably since I started this blog, but I need to just stop altogeth

Weight: 343.0 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: Toasty Breakfast: none Lunch: Corned Beef Brisket, Mac and cheese Dinner: None Snack: 2L Mt Dew, 2 L Cherry Dr pepper, Gentlemen Jack Notes: Celebrated St. Patrick's day. I don't have any Irish heritage, but I do enjoy Gentleman Jack. I don't get drunk very often, but hey, It's St. Patrick's Day. I didn't eat much today because the corned beef was a whole 3 pound brisket. So I am well fed and glad I'm home because I am not good to drive right now. I am a bit nervous about tomorrow. I work at seven am tomorrow morning I'm not worried about hangover. I have yet to ever get a hangover (that I've noticed) {knock on wood} But tomorrow is going to be my first day back from a weekly vacation and I am scheduled to work at 7am tomorrow. Had another earthquake as I was typing this. It felt like the person next door was celebrating St Patrick's day a little more than they c

Weight: 346.2 lbs Waist:55in Mood:meh Brunch: Eggs, 1.25 L Pepsi Dinner: taco bake Snack: Cheesy Ramen Notes: Kind of slept in this morning so I really didn't get a breakfast, so I just combined breakfast and lunch and had scrambled eggs for brunch. I still didn't manage to get inventory done yet, but what I did manage to do was cook a few new recipes. Not only did I get more recipes cooked I also recorded them for my YouTube channel. The second Monday of each month I want to upload a recipe video. It's been a while since I recorded any new material for this playlist. This vacation has been affecting me mentally. And not in a good way. I need to get up and moving. It's just that I have so much “Don't wanna to.” It's going to get better soon though. I have so many ideas that I want to work on.

Weight: 350.4 lbs Waist: 55 inches Mood: hopeful Breakfast: Avocado, Banana, Kale, Orange, vanilla Vega shake Lunch: Campbell chunky minstrone soup bologna sandwich Dinner:Velveeta skillet dinner, 1.25 Liter Dr Pepper Snack: Taco Johns #8 meal (meat burrito, soft shell taco, tater tots small Dr pepper) Yeah, really didn't do well over the last couple of days on the whole “quitting soda” thing. But I have avoided soda a lot more than I normally would have. But yeah, I had Velveeta dinner tonight because all of my food is frozen. But I'll getting on the meal plan tomorrow. I didn't get the meal's counted out today, I got laundry done, and I was distracted by the Master Chief Collection that I redownloaded for my Xbox 1. But I'm going to get up early tomorrow and (hopefully) get things done.

Quitting Soda Day 4 March 14 2018 Weight: 355.2 Waist: 57in Mood: tired Breakfast: pizza pasta Lunch: Cheesy Ramen Dinner: mac and cheese pork roast Snack: Sandwich, beer I did manage to avoid soda today. But I didn't really pay attention to what I ate today. I did manage to get some recipes together and go to the store. Still need to take inventory and get a meal plan together. I really want to start making progress on this. Gaining 10 lbs in five days is NOT acceptable

Weight: 354.2 Waist: 57in Mood: disappointed Breakfast: Burger King Eggnormus meal with Dr pepper Lunch: KC strip steak and Mac and Cheese Dinner: Nachos Snack: 2 litter Dr pepper, last of the coke I'm going to call this a cheat day. Because I failed hard today. I really didn't get ANYTHING done today. I was doing really well today I was pretty active this morning and afternoon. Than I ran to the store to get dinner. Than I started munching on nachos and drinking Dr pepper. I've just been sitting here at the computer binging on YouTube. The excuse I'm going with is that it is Tuesday and Tuesday is my sabbath, my day off. But the bad thing is that I didn't plan on today being a “Day off” technically I am on vacation. So it is good to take off a day to just sit around not doing anything. But I have so much that I need to get done.

Weight: 349.4 lbs Waist: 55in Mood: good Breakfast: Imperial Garden Sesame Chicken with rice Lunch: Cheesy Ramen Dinner: Slow cooked pot roast with potatoes and mushroom gravy Snacks: Can of Pringles chips. Energy shot. Bologna Sandwich I wonder, does drinking sweet tea count as soda? It is basically caffeinated sugar water. I have been drinking a lot of this gallon sweet tea. And it has been making my teeth hurt. I do admit that I did take an energy shot today. I'm not going to reset the daily count because that's going to get tedious if every time I slip on energy shots or soda I have to reset the count and think of a new title on the blog. I did manage to avoid fast food (for the most part) I still need to take inventory of my freezer to see what food I already have I have been coming up with a list of recipes for grocery shopping tomorrow. I admit that I ate the snack sandwich more because I was bored than because I was hungry

Weight: 348.0 lbs Waist: 55 in Mood: relaxed I don't know if it's daylight savings time change messing with me, but I just could not wake up today. I spent all day at my computer just kind of dozing. I did manage to get quite a bit of the cyberman helmet built. I realize that I am eating a lot of fast food recently. This isn't going to be a regular thing. A friend of mine is in town and we have been eating out a lot this week. I've been having Ice tea with my meals, somehow I don't think that's making much of a difference if I'm going out to eat for almost every meal. Sometime tomorrow or the next day I'll be getting a meal plan together Breakfast: Carl's Bar Boxcar burger (a double bacon cheeseburger with ham) and onion rings with ice tea Lunch: Taco Bake Dinner: Spangles Jalapeno double cheeseburger meal. Snacks: Box of Thin Mints cookies, Sweet tea

Weight: 346.4 lbs waist: 55 in mood: tired Okay, Trying this again. I tried to do a daily blog before, but I couldn't think of much to say in a daily post. So I'm thinking for round 2 I'm going to just mostly use this as a food log and something to keep me on track on the avoidance of soda. When I was doing this last time around I was completely avoiding caffeine altogether. And I was feeling pretty good by the end of the two weeks, but I just couldn't think of anything to say on a daily blog. (Outside of complaining about work every day.) This time around I'm just going to be avoiding soda and energy drinks. I will still be drinking coffee and tea on occasion. But no pop, not even sprite. I guess this is more of a quest to avoid sugar more than it is to avoid caffeine. Breakfast: Burger King Buttermilk Biscuit Meal Lunch: Arby's Double Cheddar Beef sandwich meal. Dinner: Taco Bell XL Brurrito Meal + extra taco. Snacks: none

I don't know of a solution. Or even if there IS a solution. But in my own opinion maybe looking to Washington for solutions might be looking in the wrong direction. One half of the debate wants to blame guns. "Just ban all guns, if we get rid of all of every single gun and then nobody will ever get shot" The problem with this argument (apart from the massive numbers of guns out there) is that the second amendment of the constitution allows for the ownership of guns. They can not legally make a law banning everyone from owning guns. I guess "in theory" this "could" change. But they couldn't even do their jobs enough to keep the government from shutting down TWICE this year. Getting enough political clout to change the BILL OF RIGHTS isn't going to happen. The other half of the debate wants to make it a mental health issue. They claim, "It's just a crazy person with a gun" the problem with this side i

Decaffeination Day 13 Weight: 342.4 Waist: 56 Mood: chilled An interesting thing I've noticed in the last couple of days, I've stopped needing pain relievers. I'm not on anything crazy or anything. I have a bottle of acetaminophen at my desk and I was taking goody energy shots several times a day. But lately my foot and joint pains have really gone down. Feet still hurt at the end of the day and in the morning, but not as much during the day. I've been hoping to be losing weight this week. But that doesn't seem to be happening. To be fair though I haven't been very good on my freezer meal plan. Right now all I have in my freezer is a lot of hamburger, but not any of the casseroles that I wanted to be living off of. And I guess it doesn't help that I never remember to weigh in before dinner. I am confident that I will be losing weight once I get back on top of my freezer meals. Noting how I'm also walking to work and dropping

Decaffeination Day 12 Weight: 337.8 Waist: 55 Mood: Well Rested Today was a blessing. Just sat at my computer I did get a bit of my living room cleaned up. But mostly I just sat around listing to music and watching YouTube. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll be disappointed with how much I didn't do today. It was nice to have a day where I didn't hear my name being screeched at me every 30 seconds or so. I can't really say that I was all that driven to drink any caffeinated beverages. I did go out to eat, but I got root beer instead of Pepsi or Mt dew or any other caffeinated sodas. I did finish looking over the finances enough to justify buying a gaming PC later this spring. So I'm looking forward to that. I was looking into building one. But it seems that right now would be a really bad time to do that. Since Cryptocurrencies are driving up prices of components. So I'm going to be looking into buying a premade PC. Probably an Alienware or

Decaffeination Day 11 Weight: 343.4 Waist: 57 inches Mood: meh I'm wondering if I'm just wasting my time with this blog. I started this blog because I thought that quitting caffeine would have been more of a challenge. But outside of the habits it really hasn't been much of a struggle. And outside of repeating myself and complaining about work there really isn't much to say on here. I think I'll try to make a couple of more daily blogs, just to get to an even two weeks. Of course that's when I'll drink an entire pot of coffee and go walking on the ceiling or something stupid. Speaking about doing something stupid. I was really craving a stuffed crust meat lovers from Pizza hut so that's what I had for dinner along with a order of the Garlic Parmesan boneless wings. Thankfully I did a little bit of extra walking so according to my calorie counter I'm still 4,000 calories short for the day. The app gave an estimate of how much I

Decaffeination Day 10 Weight: Low Battery Waist: 55 inches Mood: Calm It's nice to have a scale that lasted until the battery died. So far I've had three scales and the previous two just failed. This one flashed “Low” and didn't show a weight and then was dead, so I'm going to assume that the battery is done. As far as quitting caffeine I've never ran into any withdraw symptoms. I still catch myself staring longingly at the displays of energy drinks and I have occasionally have had headaches, but that I think had more to do with dehydration or lack of food than lack of caffeine. I am really tired as I write these blogs. However I think that has to do with the fact that the only time I manage to find any time to write these damn things is the middle of the night because I feel like I'm back in that cycle of wake up, go back to work, go back to bed. Today was a successful day I managed to make a weekly weight loss video, managed to rem

Decaffeination Day 9 Weight: 337.4 Waist: 55 inches Mood: Good I might not be jumping off the walls awesome mood. I do have to say I am in a really good mood compared to what I usually feel like coming home from work. The second half of my shift tonight wasn't a bad night. I have a feeling I could write several paragraphs about the first half, but this isn't what this blog is about. Leaving for work I was a little confused as to wither it as actually Saturday or not. I had some mail in my mailbox and at the junior collage where I take a shortcut through the parking lot had a lot of cars parked there. But I guess they have Saturday classes, today was most defiantly Saturday. One of the things I was frustrated about work was that the person that was supposed to close the self checkout called in sick. So I stayed a couple of hours late. I do think it is interesting that I am not more tired later in the day. I was scheduled to work from 12-9. but

Decaffeination Day 8 Weight: 337.6 lbs Waist: 56 inches Mood: hopeful My feet and knee have seemed to stopped hurting. But I'm not sure if that's because of the week plus without soda or because I had the day off and spent the day sitting at my computer. However I did walk for 3.28 miles today. I walked to the store to turn in my vacation request form for the year. I have enough hours to have three weeks off this year. I'm not sure why they make us fill out the form at the beginning of the year. We still have to fill out another time off slip two weeks before the actual vacation time off. I filed my taxes today. That does sound very boring, but it did excite me when I started thinking about my return. I have a financial program on my computer called Quicken which tracks my spending and bills. And I spent most of the day rearranging my bills. My new financial plan is each Thursday when my paycheck comes in I'll transfer all but $25 into my sav

Decaffeination Day 7 Weight: 339.0 lbs Waist: Mood: Proud I am happy to report an entire week without soda. And that includes multiple opening shifts. I really didn't mean for this to be a complaining about work blog. It is just how this thing turned out. And I really just can't think of other things to talk about. I thought that the experiences of quitting caffeine cold turkey would lead to some thoughts and stuff to talk about. But all of the drama at work has been clouding my mind. I am truly trying to stop complaining about work on this blog. That's not the point. But I did confirm with co-workers, this last week and a half has NOT been normal. People constantly calling in, not showing up, being scheduled at completely different stores. I have a VERY long to-do list of things to complain about on my YouTube channel. But this last week or two I just can't wrap my head around the stuff that is happening. It would be easy to claim that lack

Decaffeination Day 6 Weight: 335.0 lbs Waist: 55 inches wow, that was a hell of a drop in weight for a single day. But than again I haven't been drinking the water I wanted to be drinking. I wont make too many excuses for a eight pound drop in a single day though. I was talking with a co-worker. And the last two weeks have NOT been normal. We've been having giant swarms of people checking out with massive cartloads of groceries. And nobody seems to be showing up for work. What few people are scheduled to be there anyway. Everyday for the last week and a half I've arrived at work and the entire schedule for the day is in the process of being reworked because one person called in, another no called no showed, and one more is scheduled to be at another store altogether. They say that this is a particularly bad flu season, but goddamn people, this can't go on like this much longer. I'm seriously wondering how much caffeine effects the mi

Weight: 343.0 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: chilled Almost didn't get around to posting today. I thought I would take the day I got off to rearrange my living room. I have been meaning to do this for a really long time. (Mostly in the winter, my computer is next to the window and it gets REALLY cold) And it is fascinating to me that I have finally found the time and energy to do something that I've been meaning to do for a couple of years now that I am not drinking a lot of stimulants. There was a lot of other, arguably more important, things I could have been doing with my day off today. But hey at least I'm away from the damn window. I did gain a little bit of weight for today's weigh in because fairly late in the day I thought of doing the drink one gallon a day of water tip I have seen a lot of. I did manage to buy the fruit I need for the breakfast smoothies I want to be drinking. The smoothies are a combination of Avocado, Banana, Kale, and

Decaffeination Day 4 Weight: 338.4 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: Hopeful Okay, I was able to wake up and function without caffeine even for a opening shift. Had a hard time building momentum this morning. Feet were in some serious pain. Walking to work, two miles each way and then walking around for eight hours. Yeah, that's been having an effect. My right foot feels like there's a spike through the top of it and my left knee feels weak. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the increasing pace of the day.  For the most part I really didn't notice the difference between this morning and any other day when I opened. I am really trying to not complain about work on here, that's not the point of this blog. I did notice that I didn't have to run to the bathroom as much as I did when I was drinking energy drinks. If I could get a bit graphic here for a few sentences. I know that caffeine is a diuretic. However I have been

Weight: 340.2 lbs Waist: 54 Mood: Optimistic Really the hardest thing about quitting soda is the habits. When going on lunch or walking around the registers at work looking at the energy shots, I do catch myself reaching for the soda. I do have to say that I have been handling the lack of caffeine pretty well. Tomorrow will be the real test as I have to be at work at 6 am and I am going to force myself to not to pick up that energy shot. It will be nice to have a normal day to see how I am really doing. The last several days have been completely insanely busy. And the help in the store has been completely nonexistent. Honestly this isn't supposed to be the Mark complaining about work blog, but wow are they giving me material to complain about. But I have a weekly video series to complain about work that's not what this blog is for. I do have to say though it is infuriating when it gets busy and it seems that people don't realize that it is busy so t

Days without caffeine: 2 Weight: 342.8 lbs Waist: 56 in Mood: Frustrated I have to say that I might of chosen the worst weekend ever to try to quit caffeine. Just like I said yesterday. This weekend is the first of the month, the weekend of the Super Bowl Sunday, and there's a rumor of snow this weekend. Such a weak chance of snow they aren't even giving an estimate for accumulation. But that hasn't stopped every single idiot in town running to the store to stock up for the approaching snowmageddon. And apparently the Super Bowl is the one of the biggest eating holidays. I have a running theory that the more people in a area the dumber the individual in an area, and MY GOD it was busy today. It really felt like every single person that went through the store was straight up pissed off. Some would say that if everyone around you is pissed, it might be a problem with you. But I felt that I really was doing fine (well fine when I wasn't having th

Days without caffeine: 1 Weight: 343.2 lbs Waist:56 in Mood: tired...so tired Today was the real first day that I avoided soda. I'm not sure that today would have been the best day to start this. Truly I didn't mean to start on the beginning of the month. But the day I decided to quit drinking soda just happened to be the first Friday of the month, the weekend of the Super Bowl, and there's a rumor of a snow storm later this weekend. I have a feeling I could have red bull on a freaking IV tree running behind me and I'd still be tired at the end of this shift. To be honest I did grab an energy shot but I convinced myself to but it back. I did drink a lot of juice this morning. So I was really craving some sugar today. And one of the energy shot's that I really enjoy drinking is a Goody brand energy shot, so it is a pain relief energy shot so my legs and feet were missing that one. Along with a bit of a headache towards the end of the shift.