Marks Blog

Weight: 319.1 lbs ( 144.7 kg) BMI: 41.0 Waist: 54 in ( 137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Johnsonville Jalapeno Cheddar Smoked Sausages Dinner: Strip Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 393) Keto Week 1 (Day 9) (12/365 Days 2026 Keto) Exciting that today was another down day on the scale. It makes it look like I'm actually making progress and yesterday wasn't just a glitch or one off. I'm not sure if that trend will continue, but it is exciting to “beat” the lowest weight of last year so early in this year. Started out the morning cleaning out the oven. I do have to say that worked out a lot easier than I was expecting to. It was kind of hard as the oven door doesn't come off like in a lot of ovens referenced online in the “how to” videos, or at least I couldn't figure out how to take it off and the positioning of the shelving unit in the corner across the oven made it hard to reach the back left...

Weight: 320.9 lbs ( 145.6 kg) BMI: 41.2 Waist: 54 in ( 137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Baked Chicken Drumsticks  Dinner: Pork Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 392) Keto Week 1 (Day 8) (11/365 Days 2026 Keto) Woo-hoo Finally have a day where I'm back under the start of the year! Of course happiness is not a number on the scale, but at least this makes (almost) all of my projections go down. That last projection won't go down until I get under 314.8 lbs (142.8 kg) where I was back in 2014 when I started this whole project. But at least that goal finally looks like it's within possibility. It was fun to mark where the “Lowest Last Year”, “Progress Goal”, “Morbidly Obese”, and “Short Goal” will be on the yearly projection. “Over Weight” and “Target Weight” are still too far away to show on the projection, but time will tell. And I shouldn't get too excited for one day under the start weight. When...

Weight: 324.4 lbs ( 147.1 kg) BMI: 41.6 Waist: 54 in ( 137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Pork Spare Ribs Dinner: Pork Spare Ribs Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 391) Keto Day 7 (10/365 Days 2026 Keto) Weight is up today, but it goes up and down. There is an interesting pattern of two down days, and then an up day. But I'm not sure if that's an actual pattern, or just happens to be so in the randomness so far. I'm sitting here at the computer thinking that I should be doing something. But whenever I try to think of anything that I'm supposed to be doing my brain just flat lines. I'm sure that I'll be frustrated on Wednesday when I go to work that I didn't get that “one thing” done, but I just can't think of anything that I'm supposed to be doing. I was talking with Chat GPT and it seems to want me to set up a scheduled transfer for a specific amount. I think I like my “Flowing Cu...

Weight: 321.8 lbs ( 145.9 kg) BMI: 41.3 Waist: 53 in ( 135.9 cm) WtHr: 71.6% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Southwestern Detox Soup   Dinner: Ham Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 390) Keto Day 6 (9/365 Days 2026 Keto) I noticed that when I woke up this morning my legs weren't stiff and sore like they have been in the past. There have been days in the past when I woke up I would have to wobble around like I was walking on fiery stilts until my legs loosened up. This morning I wasn't exactly dancing around, I was able to get up and get going quite easily and there wasn't any pain. I'm sure that I'll be limping by the end of the evening. It was nice to get up and not have to sit back down with a painful gasp. It was exciting to see the down on the scale again and seeing that it's only 0.3 lbs (~5oz <136 g>) from the weight at the beginning of the year. If it gets down below the beginning of the year al...

Weight: 324.3 lbs ( 147.1 kg) BMI: 41.6 Waist: 53.5 in ( 135.9 cm) WtHr: 72.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Southwestern Detox Soup   Dinner: Grilled Pork Chops, American Blend Salad, Ranch Dressing Drinks: Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 389) Keto Day 5 (8/365 Days 2026 Keto) Brain is just scattered today. I worked 10am to 7 today. And even two hours after I got off my brain is still just bounding around like crazy. I just seem can't get a single sentence together. (Doesn't help that I forgot my note in my apron in my locker at work.) I was kind of slow waking up. Not really in a struggling way, just kind of slow plodding wake up. I did start rushing as I noticed it was coming up on 9:30 and I had to work at 10 and I was just starting to cook breakfast. So I was able to gulp down the bacon and eggs and a can of Low Carb Monster before work, but that was about all I was able to do before rushing off to work. Thankfully the snow from yesterday had...

Weight: 322.8 lbs ( 146.4 kg) BMI: 41.4 Waist: 53.5 in ( 135.9 cm) WtHr: 72.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Southwestern Detox Soup   Snack: Savage Slim Jim Dinner: Cheeseburger Patties Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 388) Keto Day 4 (7/365 Days 2026 Keto) I tried to do meditation last night but I don't remember how it went because the last thing I remember is thinking to myself that I'm starting to meditate and then I woke up this morning. I don't remember any dreams last night. But I also don't remember getting up to go to the bathroom, but my watch said I had 22 steps and that would be how many steps I would have had between my room and the bathroom and back. The sleep record said I had a good sleep score, but I didn't fall asleep until 1:25 and I didn't get much deep sleep. Another down on the scale today. It's only down 0.2 lbs (3oz or 90 grams) but a down is a down. And it's only 1.3 lbs (0.6 k...

Weight: 323.0 lbs ( 146.5 kg) BMI: 41.5 Waist: 53.5 in ( 135.9 cm) WtHr: 72.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs https://youtu.be/l5bQ0Y0FXWQ Lunch: Southwestern Detox Soup https://youtu.be/9q5K-GH0250 Dinner: Bratwurst  Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 387) Keto Day 3 (6/365 Days 2026 Keto) I don't know if the meditation last night did anything to help sleep come sooner or better. But I did have a really strange dream. Strange to have dreams at all, but this was a weird one. For some reason I was walking to work and somebody said that they knew a short cut, but I had lost them as they ran behind a warehouse which was odd because there aren't any warehouses between my house and the store. But when I came from behind the warehouse I noticed that I was in the mountains. I figured that it was the Rocky Mountains as it was rocky and snowy up on the top of the mountains. I looked down and saw a city, I figured that was Denver because that is a...

Weight: 325.6 lbs ( 147.7 kg) BMI: 41.8 Waist: 54 in (137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: AI Chili Dinner: Cheeseburger Patties Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Year 1 (Day 368) Keto Day 7 I worked 10am to 7pm a little earlier than I normally do so I had to eat breakfast in a bit of a hurry. I had woke up slowly and was just kind of puttering around I noticed that it was getting on a little past 9am while I was cooking breakfast and that would have been a little more than an hour before I started getting really ready for work as I had already showered. And then I realized that, “Oh yeah, I work early today!” I'm glad that I figured that out at 9:23 and not 10:05 when they would have been calling me asking where I was. I did have time to eat breakfast properly, but I didn't have time to drink all of the coffee that I would have. A couple of the doctors that I follow online are saying that drinking too much coffee is a really b...

Weight: 324.7 lbs ( 147.3 kg) BMI: 41.7 Waist: 53.5 in (135.9 cm) WtHr: 72.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Bar-S Jumbo Jumbo Hot Dogs Dinner: Bratwursts Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Sugar Free Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull, Sober Month 11 (Day 352) Keto Day 1 Good numbers this morning.  There was a strange story from a coworker. She said that her boyfriend was in town so she was staying with him. And her back hurt as she had slept on the concrete floor. She said that she and her boyfriend had deiced to stay at one of his friends house. But they didn't want to bother his friend so they stayed in their garage. She said that he had a cot that he slept on, but the cot wasn't big enough for the both of them so her boyfriend forced her to sleep on the garage floor. I have to say, that doesn't sound very manly. If you have a cot that only holds one and a girlfriend, your girlfriend is sleeping on the cot and you're sleeping on the ground. But also she has a ho...

Weight: 325.6 lbs ( 147.7 kg) BMI: 41.8 Waist: 54 in (137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Bar-S Jumbo Jumbo Hot Dogs Dinner: Pork Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Sugar Free Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull, Busch NA Sober Month 11 (Day 351) Keto Day 0 Got home from work last night and my brain just kind of turned off. I was scheduled to work 12 to 9pm last night and when I got home I just kind of sat down and shut down for a while. By the time I recovered and started writing the blog out it was too late to post. Of course there's nothing to say that I couldn't post after Midnight. But it just doesn't feel right. I've been in a really negative mood recently. Not even in the “Mark Whines About Work” way. Not sure how to explain it, I was in a really heavy “don't wanna to” mood over the last couple of days. I've recovered from that sinus crap that I had last week. But mentally I just really DON'T WANT to do anything. Do I want ...

Weight: ? lbs ( ? kg) BMI: ? Waist: 53 in (134.6 cm) WtHr: 71.6% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Tater Tot Casserole Dinner: Ham Steak, Jalapeno Poppers Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Sugar Free Monster, Kroger Energy Shot, Sugar Free Red Bull Sober Month 11 (Day 348) The scale and the HVAC filters did come in this morning but it was after breakfast and the pot of coffee so I didn't bother weighing in. And the filter isn't due to be changed until the end of the year, but it's good to have those in on time. I bought a four pack so the entire year's filters are bought and paid for, for the next year. Brain was kind of autopilot today. I was scheduled Noon to 9pm this afternoon/evening. I covered the Self Checkout for an hour, then I was a carryout for an hour, I was supposed to be Supervisor for three hours, but the guy running the online pickup had me cover his lunch break for an hour. I was kind of concerned because there was a compilation of orders that...

Weight: 323.8 lbs ( 146.9 kg) BMI: 41.6 Waist: 54 in (137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Cabbage Soup  Dinner: Ham Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull Sober Month 10 (Day 327) I feel like I slept a lot better last night than I have previous nights. Sleep tracker still says that I didn't fall asleep until close to 3am even though I went to bed around midnight. I do remember waking up in the night to run to the restroom so that might have reset the sleep counter so when I got up to use the restroom and went back to bed it thought the second half was the sleep for the night. The scale was nice. I mean it is frustrating to have the exact same number as it was yesterday. But that still is the lowest weight of this year and last. I went to bed last night before the AI finished the download file for the Financial Projection. This morning it kept having a hard time coming up with that file. It also offered to make tha...

Weight: 323.8 lbs ( 146.9 kg) BMI: 41.6 Waist: 54 in (137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Cabbage Soup   Dinner: Slow Cooker Chuck Roast Mac and Cheese Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull Sober Month 10 (Day 326) Really didn't sleep very well last night either. Not sure what's going on. I feel dragging tired when going to bed, but when I go to bed I'm wired for sound. I was surprised to see the weight on the scale this morning. I stood on it several times and it gave me the same number four times in a row, so it is probably accurate. At first I was impressed with the 3.2 lb (1.5 kg) drop, but what got me really excited was this was the weight that was the lowest weight of 2024! All of 2025 I've been wanting to get down to the lowest point of last year. Now to see if I'll be able to stick to that low of a weight. The Absolute Idiot messed up the Financial projection again. Last night I had told it that...

Weight: 327.0 lbs ( 148.3 kg) BMI: 42.0 Waist: 54 in (137.2 cm) WtHr: 73% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Cabbage Soup Dinner: Hamburger Helper Lasagna with Mozzarella and Parmesan Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Kroger Energy Shot, Powerade Zero Orange Sober Month 10 (Day 325)  I just could not get to sleep last night (Friday to Saturday) I was dead tired at the computer, but when I went to bed I felt like my eyes were bugging out of my head and I was wired for sound. Although I didn't sleep very well I was able to get up early enough to have breakfast and coffee. I was kind of worried that I would be able to do so. When I first go to work I was just dead tired but it was too busy to sneak away to get the Sugar Free Red Bull that I would normally drink at work (not sponsored) I was able to sneak in an energy shot. Those are technically cheaper than the energy drinks, but you get more out of the drinks than the shots. It is a small miracle that the...

Weight: 324.6 lbs ( 147.2 kg) BMI: 41.7 Waist: 55 in (139.7 cm) WtHr: 74.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Cabbage Soup   Dinner: Screaming Sicilian Supremus Maximus, Kroger 3 Cheese Garlic Bread Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull, Sober Month 10 (Day 322) Good weight this morning. I thought the scale was glitching again, but each time I stood on the scale it gave me the same (ish) number! That's the lowest weight so far this year. That's 0.8 lbs (0.4 kg) pounds from the lowest weight last year. Yesterday they called me to ask if I wanted to come in an hour early to cover somebody's lunch because the lady who was supposed to do that lunch had a doctor's notice that she can't work for the next several days. I agreed because I was kind of shorted on hours this week. I didn't realize that I was volunteering for a 6:2 split day. When I got there the trans person at self checkout asked me if I was coming in to be Super...

Weight: 327.8 lbs ( 148.7 kg) BMI: 42.1 Waist: 55 in (139.7 cm) WtHr: 74.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Instant Pot Chili   Dinner: Tootn' Chili   Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Month 10 (Day 320) Good drop of the weight this morning. The scale was consistent this morning.   Spent the day working with the AI aka “Absolute Idiot” you wouldn't think that it would be so hard to convince a computer to do math. I did kind of chuckle when I realized that I was basically using Chat GPT to program Google Colab into doing what Quicken (not sponsored) is already doing. Oh well, the AI projection is a lot more flexible than what Quicken is able to do. I was slightly annoyed by it because I thought I had it all going fine and so I had ran out to grab a 12pk of seltzer and some cheese for tonight's dinner and when I got back and logged the spending into the projection the totals on the projection didn't change despite just spending $6.07...

Weight: 329.8 lbs ( 149.6 kg) BMI: 42.3 Waist: 55 in (139.7 cm) WtHr: 74.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs https://youtu.be/l5bQ0Y0FXWQ Lunch: Instant Pot Chili https://youtu.be/-Nryw-eEfDI Dinner: Corned Beef Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sober Month 10 (Day 319) Spent a good chunk of the morning arguing with the AI. It did finally seem to get the hint of what I was trying to do. It was trying to do a lot of programming code and it finally gave me a widget in the code so I could just input my daily spending so it doesn't have to regenerate the entire code every time I spend anything. I'm going to try to avoid buying anything, but I might pick up an energy drink or two. But I think the savings plan is going to work out just fine. What's really fun is that according to the projection I might be adding to General Savings by the end of January. What's fun about that is that if my Bills and Project savings accounts are full that means that when I g...

Weight: 326.4 lbs ( 148.0 kg) BMI: 41.9 Waist: 55 in (139.7 cm) WtHr: 74.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Instant Pot Chili   Dinner: Bratwursts   Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster Sober Month 10 (Day 318) Woke up at around 7:30 so I guess I am starting to get used to the time change. Some people get really up in arms about the Daylight Savings Time changing back and forth, I am flexible enough to not be too bothered about it. It is a strange concept though. I got the email this morning that the pants that I ordered the other day had finally shipped. Err “finally” I had just ordered the pants on Thursday and they're due to come in tomorrow. What was kind of confusing is that the email says that they're being shipped by the USPS and they're still scheduled to be delivered on Sunday. I didn't think that the United States Postal Service delivered anything on Sundays, but looking it up, yes they do deliver on Sunday but it is limited to “Expre...

Weight: 331.6 lbs ( 150.4 kg) BMI: 42.6 Waist: 55 in (139.7 cm) WtHr: 74.3% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Instant Pot Chili Dinner: Pork Steak Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull Sober Month 10 (Day 317) It is amazing how quiet it is in the morning. I'm guessing that it's easier to put energy (heat) into an area than it is to take it out of an area (Air Conditioning) so the heater doesn't have to work as hard as the air conditioner so the heater is not on as much as the AC. I found the tape measure. Surprise, surprise it was on my desk next to where my coffee cup was from yesterday.  When I got to work the manager told me to cover the hours of a guy who had just gotten rehired. There is a attendance point system that I don't feel like going into right now and he was late and called in too many times and was fired. He was able to talk his way into getting rehired, and now I'm covering his hours for the next three hours...

Weight: 329.0 lbs ( 149.2 kg) BMI: 42.2 Waist: 54.5 in (138.4 cm) WtHr: 73.6% Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs Lunch: Instant Pot Chili  with Corn  Chips Dinner: Smithfield Pork Loins Roasted Garlic Herb Drinks: Salted Coffee, Kroger Seltzer, Low Carb Monster, Sugar Free Red Bull Sober Month 10 (Day 316) Woke up kind of bummed because I realized that the streamer that usually plays on Monday night, but he had technical issues on Monday, but was going to play last night. However I had forgotten that he was streaming last night so I missed his show. Not a big deal, it's just that he's really entertaining. I couldn't find my tape measure this morning before breakfast, but I'm going to assume that it's about the same from yesterday. It usually is. The AI analysis timer didn't reset until 10:30 so I was kind of eagerly waiting for that to refresh so I could refine the graph that it presented as I realized that the graph presented would be if I never did any day to ...