how do you lose 30 pounds in a month: Day 276 Wonderful Support, New Jeans, and Before Vs. In Progress Pics

Day 276

Wonderful Support, New Jeans, and Before Vs. In Progress Pics

I sincerely appreciate the wonderful comments and e-mails concerning last night's blog posting. After marinating on it for well over 24 hours, I've decided to leave the comments open for anyone to say whatever they feel like saying. As long as I don't start receiving advertising spam, I'll leave it that way. I've also decided to have a sense of humor about it, besides, why should I protect someone from their own ignorance? If they want to post something rude, crude, and unattractive—they're the ones looking like a complete idiot, not me. Joe simply misunderstood my motivation. Richard Simmons doesn't need my praise, and he certainly doesn't have to pay for it. As Ang said “Puleaze.” Further, I never write those words of praise with the expectation of anything. Richard has already given me more than my share of support and inspiration from him. Had he never done that, my words about him would still be the same, he doesn't owe anyone anything! He's just a kind, caring, and extremely generous person. I'm a lucky fellow. By the way...fellow weight loss blogger Ang was featured on Richard Simmons's QVC appearance last night! What a fantastic honor Ang! I was smiling from ear to ear, so happy to see you in those pics! You looked amazing! Ang, your commitment to your journey is awesome and the energy you put into helping us fellow weight loss bloggers is commendable! I better stop there before I upset Joe again! Helen, a new reader, made a good point—if that was the first comment like that I've received, then I'm lucky. So true. Today someone called me a funny fat man, I guess that's number two. I'm smiling by the way. I'm confident enough now to handle it. Just look at the before and in progress side by side shot below!

The other day Irene came home from shopping having spent more than we could afford. I was upset a little, until she pulled out a brand new pair of size 46 Levis 550's from the bag! It was an early Fathers Day gift from her and the girls. I'm not saying it's cool to go over budget as long as the gift is for me, I'm just saying, how could I be upset? They looked awesomely little to me. I needed them horribly and when I tried them on, I fell in love! They fit wonderfully and will for probably another month or so...then we'll be needing 44's! You see, I'm use to buying jeans at the Big and Tall store...Those exact jeans---I mean size wise and everything, cost over sixty bucks at Casual Male XL Big And Tall. Irene paid thirty-five for them at a store not even a mile from our home. How wonderfully delightful! Now I understand charging more for the bigger sizes, hey---more material equals higher cost, but this size is still over sixty at CM XL! I'm thinking seriously about sending an e-mail requesting Casual Male to take me off their mailing list. My days of spending astronomical amounts of money on clothes is over! I can shop where the “normal” people shop! Man, that feels so good to say.

I still wear some things that are way too big for me now. Wearing the bigger stuff doesn't do the dramatic changes in my appearance justice. The “In progress” grilling picture below is me wearing clothes that are actually my current size, and the difference is mind blowing to me. I hardly recognize myself. I have to hand it to Courtney and my Aunt Kelli. Courtney combed through Kelli's family picture archives today and found some absolutely shocking before pictures. You'll find them below. I still can't believe how big I really became. Isn't it amazing how we can convince ourselves that we aren't as big as we really are? I honestly had no clue I looked like that. I knew I was big, but wow...that's really big. I've also posted before and in progress shots of my two daughters, Amber and Courtney. I'll have Irene select some and she'll give me permission to post them soon. Yes, we found some really good ones of Irene too! I always hated pictures, but not anymore. Kudos to my aunt Kelli. She's the family shutterbug. She takes hundreds of pictures a month and has for years. Sometimes it would get tiring, “Kelli, come on, I'm trying to eat here!” But oh how thankful I am to her now for archiving some wonderful memories that also serve as giant reminders of where we were not that long ago.

I grilled lean burgers, only 200 calories each! Plus baked some crinkle cut fries. I learned what is a real serving of fries this evening. The bag says “15 two inch pieces” is 120 calories. So we would count them out. Only one problem, some are a little longer, some shorter. Anyway, I noticed that the 15 fry serving was based on 3 ounces. So I grabbed our trusty little food scale. We were probably consuming closer to 200 calories in our previous portions of baked fries. Tonight we each enjoyed a real serving and it was completely satisfying! You just have to be careful, I highly recommend a good food scale, it really helps for accuracy in calorie counting! I used only one piece of lite sourdough for my burger, only 40 calories worth of bread instead of 110 for a small bun. I just cut it in half for a smaller top and bottom, added some onion and mustard, plus a very thin layer of Miracle Whip, and I was good! Another wonderful dinner under 500 calories.

I look forward to this nightly writing session. I credit this blog with a large portion of my success so far, it means a lot to me. Your thoughts and blogs mean a lot to me too. I feel like I'm in a wonderful club of successful losers, it's a wonderful thing to be a part of. If you still read the identical myspace version of this blog, that's fine, but I would love to have you check out www.losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com Along the left hand side of the screen you'll see what blogs I follow, and all of them are wonderfully inspiring. I hope you check them out! It's just something you don't get with the Myspace version. I'll still post it there because it's no problem really, but come on over to the “global” version. There are some amazing people and some wonderful things going on around here!

Irene and I beam with pride over our daughters and their wonderful dedication and consistency. They're really turning it up this summer! The joy in their eyes over the amazing success they've enjoyed so far is enough to bring me to happy tears. We couldn't be happier. They're really special kids! Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean