Day 406
Shouldn’t This Birthday Stuff Be Over? and My Thinnest—It’s All In The Fit
In the Anderson Family, we’re not happy with just one day of celebrating, no…a birthday is usually celebrated a couple, maybe three times before we move on. Day 3 of my 38th birthday celebration was today. Usually a birthday dinner in my hometown means a buffet restaurant of some kind. Last year we enjoyed that big Chinese buffet, remember? This year I decided that we could all do without the buffet. I know I could’ve navigated a buffet with common sense, limited portions, and good choices, but why bother? Since it was my birthday, I got to choose the place for our celebration. I chose a fast food Mexican place called Taco Mayo. The crispy beef tacos are stuffed at this place and they’re only 163 calories each. When you pile on the nearly “calorie-free” extras like salsa, peppers, and hot sauce, you’ve got a complete meal with a couple, and three of ‘em leaves you feeling nicely full and still under 500 calories. Easy choice, that place rocks every time.
My mom made sure we had a cake, nothing fancy, just my favorite! My favorite is the Pepperidge Farm white coconut cake. We cut the thing into nine small pieces, each coming in at 225 calories. Mom also brought a frosted brownie. Instead of four 390 calorie servings, we cut it into sixteen pieces---really small squares, for a whopping 97 calories each. Someone calculated 80 each, so we all thought it was 80, but no---it was 97 calories. It was a really dense, fairly rich brownie. I’m not sure enjoying both the brownie piece and the cake was the best move, especially after having 489 calories worth of tacos, but my calorie budget could handle it, barely---but it could handle it, so hey---I celebrated, enjoyed, and finished confident that my consumption was within reason and the calorie budget for today.
The best part of the visit was the wonderful pictures that Aunt Jean discovered inside an old storage closet at grandmas house. I’ve posted one below, it’s really small, but it shows me at what may well be the biggest I’ve ever been. It was captured in 1993 at a McDonald’s restaurant in Stillwater. Just by looking, I would estimate my weight at the time to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 525, maybe even 530. And I don’t know if you can tell, I’m not fitting into that booth. I’m actually sitting in between the tables. It wasn’t “fat friendly” seating.
Rachel stopped by our celebration with a wonderful gift. Rachel is a longtime friend, fellow blogger, and really---she’s like part of the family. She stopped by with a wonderful gift. Another egg separator! She bought this one from Pampered Chef. I’ve gone from zero separators to three in as many months thanks to Rachel and Linda! It’s awesome because I’ve always got one ready to go! Thank you Rachel!
I proudly wore my SWOSU Dad t-shirt that Amber gave me. I love it! I kept it clean and I’ll wear it once again tomorrow! I need to buy me a SWOSU dad sweatshirt and jacket too! The compliments and “wow” reactions to my transformation always go way up when I wear clothes that really fit, instead of stuff that’s too big. This 2x shirt really fits perfectly, and I actually put it on and left the house without an over-shirt. With the chilly temperatures, I could’ve put on an over-shirt and nobody would have questioned the move, but I decided to look my absolute thinnest today. It was incredible, just incredible.
Well, another wonderfully successful day is in the books! Weigh day is Wednesday. We’re at 221 pounds lost so far, can we break the 225 mark? We’ll see! Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is for sure…I will reach my goal. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes, I will get there because my new way of thinking will naturally transform me and keep me there forever. That’s exactly why the mental part is so vitally important along this journey. A weight loss approach that doesn’t address the mental aspects and only focuses on losing the weight is a flawed approach. I’ve had many of those in the past. Never again my friend, never again. Thank you for reading. Goodnight and…
Good Choices,
Sean
In 1993 at possibly my biggest ever. Who knows, because I didn’t give a care to what I weighed back then. In the picture: My mom, Irene (pregnant with Courtney), my little brother Shane, Me, Little blonde headed Amber, and my grandpa and grandma.
Our family birthday celebrations have been known to last 4 or 5 days. One year, between my job, my family and my hubby's family I had 4 cakes! Oy.
ReplyDeletewow, for 530 lbs. you carried it well. Of course, youre tall. I bet your glad this year, if you wanted...you could slide behind that table. Happy birthday. Enjoy a new, healthy year!
ReplyDeleteoh, and my blog is all about the mental. You are absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteThis picture is also very unflattering of Irene. I'm having a hard time connecting the people in that photo to the two of you now. No wonder you feel like different people. Is your dad wearing a pilgrim hat?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I ment to say Grampa. I think Grampa has a regular hat on and something behind him that makes it look like a pilgrim hat.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you had such a wonderful birthday. I wish I could have been there! And my mom.....she would be so proud of you. She worried about you so much. We're all proud of you. YOU DA MAN!
ReplyDeleteClothes that fit make a huge difference, Sean. It still amazes me that you've lost so freakin' much... what a huge accomplishment. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI celebrate my birthday for an entire week! lol Glad you had such a wonderful time with all the celebrating...you deserve it! You're a much bigger fan of "before" pics than I am...I don't want to be reminded of the hell I was living in, lol. You've come a long way Sean...you look fantastic...very proud of your progress thus far...can't wait to see where you end up! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is a biiiiig photo!
ReplyDeleteAnd you have lost nearly 225 - that is what I weighed at the start of this year. You have lost a whole fat me! *faints*
Sean, you are an awesome inspiration. I hope you enjoyed every bite of that birthday cake! It's amazing what you've managed to do in 406 days. Congrats on your new "dad's" wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteBTW...in a moment of shameless self-promotion, I have started day 1 of my blog, One Foot In Front of the Other. :)
Hi Sean glad you enjoyed your birthdya celebration and got to enjoy cake, why shouldn't you I say. I hope you are going to psot a photo of yourself in your new top.
ReplyDeleteClothes that fit are so much more flattering then big baggy ones.
Happy Birthday