Super Set Saturday - Week 2 (The attack of pocket sausage)

Welcome back again.

I sincerely appreciate all of the messages, words of encouragement and exciting stories y'all have shared with me.

For those that were looking for a post from last week, I apologize I was in Philadelphia celebrating this journey with friends.  Its hard to believe its been almost a year and the things I was able to do and see i'd never have done a year ago.  So to those that I got to see while there and those that made the trip special for me I thank you, and hope we can all get together again.  

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Quote of the week:

Don't Let your thoughts run away with you, Don't start planning to bail out because you're worried about the future and how much you can take.  Don't look ahead to the pain, just get through the day. - Marcus Luttrell

This has helped drive me through weeks where I didn't want to continue on this journey, just get through the day, I know it seems so basic, but get through that day and get up and start the next like its day 1 all over again.  Yes days will suck, but as you progress there will be more good days than bad, more pain free days than painful days.  Keep driving through it the light at the end is well worth it.

Workout of the week: Chest and Tris 

Cardio - 20 minute warm up cardio (I chose bike as it gets the blood flowing in the legs)

Single arm tricep pull downs - 3 sets 10-12 reps with a goal of raising the weight each set.

Cable Flies - 3 Sets 10-12 reps

Low Cable Chest Flies - 3 sets 8-10 reps 

Pushups - Superset with Machine chest press 8-10 pushups

Machine Chest Press - Superset with pushups 10 reps x 3 sets

Dips - Been using a waited dip machine for these but 3 sets 10-12 rep

Tricep Pull downs - two hand rope pull downs, high weight for 10 reps, half the weight till failure x 3 sets

Crunches - 50-100

Skull Crushers - 3 sets 12 reps each

Sauna - I usually sit in the sauna 10-15 minutes post workout everyday.

It is important to remember every few weeks to switch up the workouts a bit, this is my current leg routine would love to hear some input from you all about what I should do next.

Meal Prep of the week:

  So this is where I tell you that I failed this week miserably at meal prepping.  For the week I was in Philadephia eating food that was not on my diet, but I worked hard for a year and decided to take a week and just enjoy myself.  I don't regret it and the day I got back I fasted for 24 hours and started working out again.  My meals after I've gotten back were simply One meal a day a large salad with grilled chicken.  Tried to stay away from snacks but getting back into ketosis was rough on me this time and suffered from a bit of the Keto Flu so bone broth, pickle juice and a couple fatty avocados helped me get through the week.  

What I'm excited about next week:

Being home is exciting.  I'm actually currently working on plans to make two trips by the end of the year. I had realized I haven't been home (Vermont) in 15 years for the holidays this may be something I do.  I've also been working on a road trip to Florida to get some fishing in and just experience life.  One thing i've learned on this journey is while depressed and obese I never wanted to do anything, now I've found my spice for life and am excited to get back out and explore.  Hope to make this Florida trip in two stages and meet up with friends along the way.  

Question of the Week: 

When you first started, where did you go for meal prepping and ideas?

So much like last week I youtubed and pinterested a lot for recipes and ideas.  Once I got into the groove of things of what I could and could not eat while on Keto I started disecting some of my favorite foods and putting a keto twist on them.  I'm blessed to have many friends who bake, cook, bbq, chef things up in amazing ways and I can always ask them questions.  If you have any good Keto meal ideas leave a comment or shoot me a message on one of my social media platforms i'd love to try what you have or what you've been wanting to do.  

Shoutout of the week:

I think this is going to become my favorite section of this whole blog.  If I've learned anything on this journey its been to never let those that helped you along the way go unforgotten, so many people have played a vital role in my everyday life and I'm truly blessed to have them there.  This weeks shoutout goes to 

Jason P.

This goes all the way back to the summer leading up to October of last year.  Jason had started Keto and was losing weight and was sharing his journey with me.  What he didn't know was that I was searching for a way out of the hell I had put myself in.  Jason and I would chat for hours at night about it and everyday he'd ask if I had started, what was my hold up, guess I just didn't want to be healthy.  I know it sounds annoying to some of you reading this, but if you know him its out of love that he does this.  He knew that he'd push the right button sequence to clear me for take off.  We chatted about it and decided I was going to dive head first into this but we had to set up a sort of celebration and we started planning this past weeks trip to Philadelphia.  I was super hesitant when I started and told him I'd be lucky to lose 50lbs by then.  Well 190 lbs later I'm beyond grateful for him pushing me to be better.  Jason has gone from a friend from our Eagles group to a brother and I'm glad to call him family.
Also wanted to shoutout to all of the friendly folks I met in Philly and I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing everyone again.  So many to list but a few will probably be pictured below.  

See you all next week!

Super Set Saturday - Week 1

Welcome Back!!!!!

As I stated in my introduction post, I will be providing weekly posts to give you awesome readers more insight into what I do on a weekly basis, while also including some of the people who have inspired me along the way.  Always open for comments, suggestions and questions which I will also include in my weekly updates.  So sit back relax and Thank you for spending a short amount of time with me this week.

Quote of the week:

Most important thing is to get rid of doubt, If you got doubt in what you're doing it's not going to work. - Nipsey Hussle

For a long time I always doubted being able to start and move the needle on this weight loss journey. Once I started slowly removing the doubt, and made up my mind I wasn't going to fail the results are before you today.  So whatever you are doubting in life, know it could be holding you back from greatness.

Workout of the week:I figured for the first few weeks I'd give you a glimpse of my workouts, and this week I'm spotlighting the dreaded LEG DAY.  

Cardio - 10 minute warm up cardio (I chose bike as it gets the blood flowing in the legs)

Leg Curls - 3 sets 10-12 reps with a goal of raising the weight each set.

Leg Extensions - 3 Sets 10-12 reps
Squats - 3 sets 8-10 reps (I use a squat machine vs traditional squat rack, still recovering from a knee injury)
Leg Press - 3 sets 10-12 reps increasing weight each set 
Crunches - 50 crunches in any order just get them done
Leg Extensions - Crazy 8's as I like to call them, 8 reps each leg, then 8 reps with both legs.  When doing both legs try to control your movement and slow down.  Do this for 3 sets
Seated Leg press - Same as Leg extensions above, 8 reps each leg followed by 8 reps both legs.
Cardio - 10-15 minutes cardio of choice.
Sauna - I usually sit in the sauna 10-15 minutes post workout everyday.

It is important to remember every few weeks to switch up the workouts a bit, this is my current leg routine would love to hear some input from you all about what I should do next.

Meal Prep of the week:

Kept it simple all week, breakfast was a 4 egg omelet with sausage, ham, onions, jalapenos, Spinach and cheese, topped with smoky hot sauce.  

Dinner this week was deconstructed Philly Cheesesteaks, essentially shaved beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms with melted provolone and cheddar cheese in a bowl.
Snacks this week were Sugar Free Jell-O topped with some heavy whipped cream.

Saturday Splurge day - On Saturday I always treat myself as a way of congratulating myself on another great week.  This Saturday I stopped into Blaze Pizza and got their Keto crust pizza with a bunch of meat toppings.  Then grabbed a pint of Rebel Ice cream (Strawberry flavor) which I got through about 1/3 of before I had to tap out, if you've never had Rebel Ice Cream give it a try hands down the best "diet" ice cream I've ever had.  

What I'm excited about next week:

PHILADELPHIA!!!! I've been planning this trip to attend my first ever Philadelphia Eagles game at Lincoln Financial field for a year now with some close friends.  This trip planning was a huge part of the fire that motivated me to get to where I am today.  Next week I'll update with a couple of pictures from the trip, as I'm determined to climb the Art Museum (Rocky Steps) and a few other locations. 

Question of the Week: 

When you first started, where did you go to learn and develop your workout plan?

Man I spent hours on youtube, bodybuilding.com, kagedmuscle.com, just trying to find what I felt would work for me.  What I started with is completely different than what I'm doing now, I dreaded having to do cardio, loved the pool so I did a lot of pool cardio to start, easy lifting tutorials and just kind of pieced it all together.  I found out it was ok to fail multiple times till I found out what was right for me to be doing there.

Shoutout of the week:

This is going to be a space where I shout out someone or multiple people that have really helped motivate me along the way.  

The first shoutout goes out to a group of people I affectionately call my Fuel Friends. 

Nick F and Billy C without our group text I'm not sure I'd be driven daily, you guys get up early and push the envelope as the sun is coming up and I'm beyond thankful for that.  You guys have been there since day 1 when I couldn't finish a round of golf and walked off the course dejected, and humiliated.  I broke down in my car that day and decided never again.  Thank you for continuing everyday to push me when I don't want too.  Hope I've been able to spark you guys a bit each day as well.  You guys were also there with me through the tough times in my life that I mentioned last week and encouraged me and lifted me up when I was down.  Your daily 5k runs inspire me to hopefully get out there and run with y'all someday.  Your journeys have been equally as exciting to watch and I'm glad to not only call you guys friends but family.  #stayhard #fuelfriends 

See you all next week!

Welcome inside my world

Hello, and thank you for taking some time out of your day to read about my life.  
My name is Ken and I started my weight loss and wellness journey on October 8th, 2018.  Like most people I began this journey very pessimistically, extremely depressed and morbidly obese.  

Over the past 11 months I've learned a lot about who I am as a person and changed my entire lifestyle so much so that I'm writing this blog today, which is something I swore I wouldn't do.  As time has progressed I realized If I could reach out and help just one person with the struggle that I went through it would all be worth it.

First things first I should probably explain to you my "why", why now? Why did I finally start to change my life when I did.  This is always the hard part to explain to people when they ask me, but to start 2016, 2017 and most of 2018 my life was spiraling out of control.  I went through a divorce at age 36, almost lost my father to illness once he got better my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Everything piled on and the depression dug in deeper and like a lot of people in the world I dug deeper into the fast food bag, sugary foods, and lots of alcohol.  My life was spiraling out of control and I was the captain of the ship.  Living 1800 miles away from your family they had no idea what was going on in my head and with everything going on with my parents I had to have a real conversation with myself about fixing my life or dying alone.  I picked up the phone and called my mother and asked her how she felt about her diagnosis and what her plan was to fight cancer.  She was defeated and did not want to fight it she was scared of chemo and all that comes with fighting and surviving cancer.  I promised my mother that day on the phone that if she fought her fight with cancer I'd fight my fight with depression and my weight.

So what did you do Ken to get to where you are at now?  After that conversation with my mother I started doing research on what types of eating lifestyles have had some proven success, knowing I've tried multiple and failed numerous times.  Two weeks later I settled on and decided I'd start living a Ketogenic lifestyle and gave myself the time frame of 3 months to see if I could stick with it.  Well closing in on a year I'd say I stuck with it.  Six months in my mother had successfully defeated cancer and I was well on my way to where I am today.  

Since committing to a Ketogenic lifestyle I've also started at the gym 6 days a week most weeks and use an intermittent fasting window.  

With this blog I'd love to get feedback from you as what you want to see or hear from me.  This hasn't been easy and I'll be sharing stories and giving a weekly update.  Together I'm hoping we can evolve this into a supportive community where we can all help each other.  

Thanks for stopping by and taking a quick glimpse into my world.   


Here are my starting numbers:
475+ lbs (I say + because the only scale I could find maxed out at 475 and when I stepped on it gave an error message)
Size 58 pants
Size 6xl shits (very snug)

Today:

289 lbs (still a long ways to go to hit my goal of 225)
Size 42 Pants
Size 2xl and 3xl shirts