Weight Mate

Hey mates... It's David here. it's the evening of February 6th, as this daily accountability podcast definitely has missed some days I took some more time off for myself. Plus, we were hecka busy these past couple days. So much so that there's been not really time to meal prep. Our weekend went fast. Now here I am on a Monday night, getting this episode out to you! I feel like January was a learning curve. I wanted to try to do a lot. Maybe a lot more than I should have. Maybe I should have focused one one thing, like meal prepping, and added more stuff in. Regardless, it's February now. And this month, I'll be working on keeping myself accountable. My goal for the rest of this month are: Meal prep. Or in the absence of meal prep, make the right decisions when eating. No pizzas, no pastas, no crackers and snacks and things like that. I have the right things at the house. I just have to choose them. I think sometimes that's the hardest thing, right? It's easy to just grab some crackers or chips. It's harder to take 5-10 minutes to make something that will be 10x better and healthier. It's that whole convenience/fast food thing. I want it now. I've been making wrong decisions. Now, it's time to make right decisions. Better decisions. And I hope you'll join me in this goal, mates. Let me know what you're struggling with. Share some of those easy, go to snacks that actually are healthy/better than those chips and crackers. Thanks for listening, and sticking with me, mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's David. Today is Friday, January 27th.  It's been a few days. The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Or in this case, the lack of podcast episodes. I'll be honest and up front. I got burned out. Especially trying to say the same thing every day, but in different ways. It's tough.  Especially when, at times, I just don't have the energy to do things. I want to meal prep, but I also want to relax and just have downtime. I want to walk, but I've got homework to review with the kids, or doing things around the house. I know, I know...  some of these things are excuses. I'm good at excuses and making reasons as to why I couldn't do things. It's been 27 days since I started this with well meaning intentions and a goal, and with a positive mindset. I tried to keep that positivty, but sometimes, I just can't hold it. A lot of times it's easier to keep doing the things I've always done rather than do the hard things to change. However, I made a commitment to myself. While I may miss days here and there... I will come back. I will continue to hold myself accountable and also try not to beat myself up too badly. There's 365 days in the year, and we're only 27 days in. Baby steps are still steps, and we... I.... will make progress towards my weight loss goals. Thank you for still listening to me, and being here. I appreciate you all.  You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's David. It's January 23rd and I'm re-recording this episode and releasing it on the 24th. So, a time skip, if you will. I needed sleep, and apparently, that meant that my brain was like "Nope, not going to do anything right now." So I went to bed about an hour earlier than normal. I scrapped the episode that was supposed to have been released. I'll be honest with everyone. I was tired. I've been running on 4 hours of sleep for several days, or weeks. Something like that. And I know how sleep is very important with you know... everything. Even weight loss. Mental health. Everything. So, I got some extra sleep. Yesterday, the 23rd was weigh in day. And what I expected to happen, happened. I stayed the same. With the amount of running around we've been doing, eating out at restaurants, not eating until late, not having meal prepped and generally just being caught up in life, nothing progressed downward. On the plus side, I didn't gain anything either. Unless you count be tired, somewhat cranky at times, and in need of sleep. This week is looking like it'll be a lite version of last week. A few appointments, but in all honestly, I should be able to prep and plan today and tomorrow. We have stuff in the house and I'm going to make sure to use as much as I can and knock things out. So, the goals for this week are as follows: Meal prep, check grocery store prices, eat better, and start walking to build up to a mile. What are some of your goals that you have? How was your past week? Let me know. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening mates.

Hey mates, it's David, back with you on this Sunday, the 22nd! Today, the family and I went to the local renfaire. Like I'd said previously, we hadn't been to a renfaire since 2009 or so. So we went today, when the temperatures looked like they'd be good... but they hit about mid 80s and I got a sunburn. Most likely waiting for the joust, since it was out in the open and mid-day when the sun was beating down on us. Florida should not be mid 80s in January. I will say that a positive of the renfaire is logging a little over 8500 steps, which averages about 4ish miles of walking. And that's a good thing. It's something that I will continue to build on this week by walking each day. Building my body up to endure more, and just getting exercise in general. Food wasn't too bad of an issue today. We went to the main area that had food and chose the stall that could accomodate all our food options. I ended up geting a scotch egg. A scotch egg is a hardboiled egg, wrapped in sausage. They fried theirs, but other places sometimes will bake them. It was a good protein on protein meal, minus the frying of course. But it was a better decision than say, pizza, or chicken tenders. I also ended up at our Publix again to get some things for the week. I still haven't made it to the other stores in the area to price compare and take notes, but that's coming. I'll also be meal prepping tomorrow for the week, with the usual culprits, chicken.... and eggs. I hope you all had a good weekend. Tomorrow, we check the scale to see where we land! Thanks for listening and being my mate. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey there mates, it's David here. It's Saturday, January 21st.  Tomorrow, we're going to a RenFaire for the first time in awhile and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also thinking about joining a bowling league to at least get a bit of exercise in. That's still up in the air though. I wanted to take a moment and talk about eating out. Oops, I did it again. I'm neither Britney, or wearing her red catsuit. But that's neither here nor there. Eating out is tough. I love food. I love tasty food, and when I go out to eat, I want to eat something that I cannot make at home. So you'll never see me ordering chicken tenders, basic burgers, most breakfast food. I can do all that. You can find me ordering juicy steaks, or dishes that have what I believe are complicated sauces. Things like that. This makes it tough when I'm watching what i'm eating and trying not to over eat. I want to make those good choices, but as this past week has shown... I have not yet mastered giving those good, tasty choices up. Today was no different. I went to a restaurant today and ordered a korean spicy steak. And it was good. SO good. But I did a few things I shouldn't have done. I should have cut it in half and brought one half home. Instead, I ate it all. I also ate the noodles that came with it. Noodles, breads, carbs... they're all a big no no. And while I activey have been striving to avoid them...  sometimes they just come after me and are like "Eat us, you'll love us" And so I did. Soemthing my parents talked to me about when going to restaurants is that they usually look at the menu ahead of time so that way they know what they're going to pick, and that's that. Unfortunately, at times, we're driving around and deciding spur of the moment to go somewhere. However, I am going to set a micro goal of making sure to choose things that are better for me. Instead of the noodles, I should have had a noodle replacement - like veggie zoodles. Something like that.  I tend to beat myself up a lot when it comes to these mistakes and slip ups. But as long as I'm learning from them, that's all I can do. I hope you all have had a great day. Thanks for listening to me and being there for me, mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's January 20th. TGIF. It's Friday! Not much is going on over here. Since it was a Friday, we do Friday Family movie nights. We used to do Uber Eats every Friday, but now, whoever has the movie pick now picks a meal for me to make. So today, my middle kiddo chose stuffed shells. The filling was SO good and the meat sauce turned out well too. This weekend I'm hoping to get to a few of the other supermarkets to start checking prices and working out this grocery store wackadoodleness with prices. I'll also be doing some food prep Sunday night. We're going to a RenFaire on Sunday and that should be a good time. We haven't been to one in about 13 years. Since I still have some listener questions, I wanted to do a round 2 on them! What's my opinions of meds that help you lose weight? Am I open to it? And would I ever try it if nothing is working? I think whatever works for people. Who am I to tell people what they should or shouldn't do. Heck, I had gastric sleeve surgery. I'm not sure if I can do weight loss meds, but I don't think it'd be for me unless I really did the research and made sure it was ok. Am I open to trying out different diet methods besides counting calories, if my listeners recommended it to you? I feel like I'm open to everything, and am always interested in getting tips, tricks, and new methods that maybe I don't know. Depending on what it was, I'd be interested in trying things out. What past diet methods have I tried, and did they work? Well, besides weight watchers, I've not really done any specific methods. Just putting my food into apps and trying to count calories and macros. We did the beachbody shakes for awhile. I also did bariatric protein shakes after the gastric sleeve surgery. But I needed to move on from those to get protein from real sources.  Let me know what diet methods you have tried. What has worked for you? Let me know on my instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com Thanks for listening and being a mate!

Hey mates, it's David. It's January 19, a Thursday. All this week I've had to remind myself what day it was. Today was another decent day for food. I made sure to eat, I drank some water, but not enough. Not as much as I should be, but I am drinking more than previous days. So baby steps. I had some questions come in to the email and wanted to take time to answer them.  What made me decide on a daily podcast vs a weekly podcast, since there's a lot of pressure on being accountable every day. Well..  I don't know. I thought it'd be easy to hit that record button, talk about my day, and move on from it. However, it's not that easy. Sometimes I don't feel like I accomplished as much as I should have. Other times, I feel like I'm stuck in a loop repeating myself. But I wanted to make sure that I kept myself on track with a schedule. With getting my words and feelings out there, and to just do it for me. This forces me to hit that record button. To make the graphic... to put it out there into the world. What's my go to method for moving my body? And will I incorporate strength training or resistance bands? Right now, it's walking. Walking outside when the weather is good, which it has been recently here in Orlando. Once it starts hitting those mid 80s again, I may have to clear off the treadmill and walk in here. AS far as strength training or resistance bands, I think my body weight is enough for most exercises. We do have some basic sets of hand weights/dumbbells, so I may do some exercises to build upper body strength. Have I ever tried Weight Watchers? I tried years ago, when it was still called Weight Watchers. I did it through work, but ultimately failed out of it. It didn't work for me.  What kind of diet methods have I tried, and are there any I'd try? I generally do a low carb diet, as much as I can. Since I had the gastric sleeve surgery, the big thing is protein followed by vegetables. When I have a lot of carbs, I can get sleepy super easy or....  I have to visit the bathroom more often. So I try to stay away from carbs. I've thought about Keto or Paleo. As well as even Pescatarian or vegetarian. A lot of those take time to really switch, and it's hard to shift an entire family of 5 over to something. So, right now, it's trying to find what works in the scope of the family. I've got more questions, and will answer them in a future episode. If you've got questions, comments, tips, or recipes, please feel free to comment on my instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com Thanks for listening and being my mate.

It's Wednesday, January 18th. And here I am, late again. My apologies to you, my mates Today was a relatively good day for eating. I ate and whoops... forgot to eat dinner. Let me take a moment to do that. And I'm back. Dinner was later than normal because I forgot and because we were busy today with volunteer hours for my kiddos. I wanted to take today's episode to talk about what they did today. Today, they served the community in Orlando that need food the most. It's something they had done several years ago. It's one thing to hear about it online, see news reports either written or visually. It's another thing to see it in person, to see people waiting for a plate of food. Something we take for granted so much of the time.  While I was there, I wondered for some, if this was their only meal. Had they eaten breakfast? Lunch?  Some arrived with children. Young children. Too young to be in school. I wondered if they had eaten. I could only hope that they had. One of the bright spots with this service was that the group had brought so much food that not only did people get one plate, they were able to get seconds, thirds... however much food they wanted. Some ate and then took another plate to go. Wrapped in foil and in a plastic bag. They served just under 100 people if my count was accurate. Even when we were leaving after they had stopped the food service, there were people who had been making their way there. It's hard to imagine missing what could have been their only opportunity for a meal. A hot meal, because they had to travel on foot from wherever they were to this location. Everything left over they were able to save for the next service tomorrow. Not everything I talk about will be about me, even if the original intent was to talk about me. That's what happens with doing a daily podcast, I guess. Things change.  I'll check in tomorrow mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Good evening mates, it's David. It's Tuesday, January 17th. It's always weird when we have Monday's off. Today felt like a Monday, even though its Tuesday. Today, my eating was more improved. Hard boiled eggs, vegetables and kielbasa. I prepped the kielbasa early this morning in the air fryer. Tonight, I seasoned and cooked a whole 5 pound chicken in our Emeril air fryer. The air fryer is a really cool, powerful gadget. Not only does it air fry, but it serves as a mini-oven and just comes through for us in so many ways, food wise. Though the seasoning didn't get into the meat, it was still juicy chicken. Next time, I'll have to figure out a way to get the seasoning to get in there. Served it with some vegetables and some basmati rice. I had a spoonful of rice, but mostly chicken and veggies. All the chicken that was left over I put away for future meals. Whether I season it again and warm it up for some chicken tacos, or some other meal, we had enough chicken for a few more servings. Did a few little walks today with the pup to get the blood moving and my body moving. I haven't yet hit up the grocery stores yet, but may be doing it later this week or this weekend. We have an outdoor activity planned for Sunday. We'll be going to the local renfaire, and that means some walking. Which means I'll be getting some good steps in. I'm excited, since we haven't been to a renfaire in about 10-11 years. I'm hoping it will be a good time. Let me know what's on your meal plan coming up and what plans you have for the weekend! I'll check in with you tomorrow! You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's David. Today is January 16th. Tom Brady and the Bucs are out. The Cowboys are in, and we now are already mid way into January. Time is always something that just moves so fast and so slow at the same time. Today was weigh in day. And like I thought, I didn't lose. But, I didn't gain either. I held steady. Which means at the very least, that my baby steps are overcoming my issues with not eating right, not meal prepping as much as I should, and the inevitable eating out/temptations. This week, I'll be visiting Aldi's, Target, and Walmart to check prices on our usual items to see where we can save money. This will help with the meal prep. I'm actually meal prepping tonight as we speak. I'm cooking two beef polska kielbasa from Hillshire Farms, along with some seasoned Brussel sprouts. Going to portion them off into meals for the week. I'm looking forward to them. I know the kielbasa isn't the best thing, but it's protein and easily preppable. I also have a whole chicken that I'll be putting in the air fryer tomorrow to add to our "stuff that is prepped and ready" list. I will say, I got some added motivation today. Call it spite motivation. I won't say anymore. And yes, I understand it's not the best thing in the world... but I now have another goal on the weight loss side of things to get to. Just to know that I did it. So, we're starting a new week. Baby steps on the horizon for meal prep. Exercise. And working on that mental image/body image thoughts that roam in my brain. I'll let you know how things go tomorrow. Thanks for listening and being my weight mate. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey there mates, it's David and today I'm wrapping up Sunday, January 15th. I can't apologize for the time I get these out to you, but at least they're consistent! I wanted to first thank those of you who are listening. I'm trying to vary things up so as to not bore you, and to help provide insight into what I'm doing. Briefly, today, I prepped some eggs for this coming week, we have a chicken to be cooked tomorrow for meal prep that we're doing tomorrow, and I went grocery shopping. Let's talk about grocery shopping for a moment. I do most of the grocery shopping for the family. I do most of the cooking, since I'm the one that's home during the day and can cook and have time to do so. I believe, sadly, that our time using our local grocery store is over. We typically shop at Publix. It's in our neighborhood. As in, I could walk there and back if I wanted to. I don't want to, because it's normally super hot, and I'm buying things to feed a family of 5. However, prices have been creeping up since the start of the pandemic in 2020 and sadly, it doesn't look like its going to change there anytime soon. Besides the eggs, which are hard to find and pricey due to the avian flu, staples like a publix branded loaf of bread has gone up over $1.00. Deli meat has gone up from $7-8 a pound to $13-14 a pound. Our food budget, while high, has never been higher as it has become. My wife bought a chest freezer at the start of the pandemic. I had been buying things on sale and sticking them in there in 2020ish, but had fallen off that routine. Today, I did it because there was meat and other frozen goods on a really good sale and I'm not going to miss that. We'll eventually use it. But it's hard to feed a family of 5, and meal prep and have to skip over things we need because it's just too expensive to buy. I'll have to start venturing out to places like Walmart, Target, and Aldi to see what I can do and change to not only spend less money but also to get the things we need to help me on my journey, along with my family, who are an extension of the goal of healthy / better eating. I know it's tough out there, and I hope you all are doing ok with your food shopping and food choices. I ate decently today, I did some walking, but not enough. But getting my mind set and ready for the week was needed, and spending time with family also was a much needed day. Thanks for listening. We start a new week tomorrow and have my second weigh in. We'll see how it goes! You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's me, David. It's Saturday and I just watched one of the wildest come from behind NFL games... the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the LA Chargers. It was WILD. If you watch sportsball stuff, I hope you caught it. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's ok too. I didn't do any prep today for food. I didn't exercise or walk, even though it was nice and cool outside for Florida. I yet again... did nothing. There's no excuse. I should have gone outside for a walk. I was tired. I only got about 4 hours of sleep and the morning and afternoon were busy. I was up around 5:30 and didn't get home until around 3:30 or so. So my energy was pretty much gone. I did some household chores and started making a list of things to do tomorrow, including grocery shopping. But I just vegged out on the couch after that. So, the past two days I've talked about things in the past. My weight loss surgery, the body dysmorphia I feel / felt. I feel like that was a pretty good start to more discussions later on this month... this year. I will definitely revisit these topics as I continue to progress. Although this episode will be on the short side, I want to stress that taking care of yourself and seeing your doctors, if you're able to, is something you should be doing. Checking in with them about your health, or things that you feel might be off with your body is crucial. Sadly, the only problem is at times, we get dismissed. Especially for those of us that are larger. It's always "Lose weight" and your problems will go away. Except, it's not always that. I know finding a doctor who will look past that is tough. It may take some time, but it is well worth it to find someone who can and will advocate for you and be a partner in your health. Just because I'm overweight doesn't mean I don't deserve the same level of care and consideration that someone smaller may get. I'll check in with you tomorrow and hopefully have more on my personal front! Thanks for listening mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or by email at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Content warning: Body Dysmorphia Hey mates, it is Friday the 13th. I always love Friday the 13th. 13 is my favorite number. I hope you all had a good Friday, and that you all get to enjoy this weekend - if you're off! So yesterday, I talked about my gastric sleeve surgery. After I had dropped the 100 pounds, there was another issue. Some people don't know about body dysmorphia. Even I didn't really understand it. For me, when I looked in the mirror... I wasn't me anymore. I had gotten so used to how I looked when I was bigger, that it was hard for me to acknowledge how my body had changed. And that was 100 lbs lost. Not even all that I needed to lose. So I'd see myself in the mirror and just... there would be times where I'd eat because I knew I could make myself become my old self again. I was down from a size 54 waist to a 44-46. I had gone from wearing 4XL shirts down to 2xl shirts..  I was on the way, right? I had nice suits that I was looking at for when I went further down. I had thought about even doing some cosplay in the future. But like I said, there were times I just could reconcile this new David with the old David. And eventually my brain wanted the old me. The bigger me. There was... and is, self sabotage. I'll drop 10-15 pounds. Gain it back. Drop it. Gain it back. I want to be in the smaller pant sizes. I want my shirts to be smaller. Not just for being healthier, but dang if they don't upcharge the bigger sizes. You know what I'm talking about. Today was a decent day, and the weather has dropped in temperature, so I'll be walking more tomorrow. I ate good today. And I talked with someone yesterday about eating a plant based diet. I'm learning new things daily and will be incorporating what I learn. And I'll be letting you know what I do. Thanks for listening mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's January 12th. Today's not been that great of a day. I've been in a grumpy mood and I ate my feelings throughout the day. I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today. Because obviously, I was not accountable in any way today. So I guess today is as good a time as any to talk about some of the past stuff that I'm working my way through and what I'd done previously. You may have heard me mention that I can't drink carbonated beverages. That's because I had surgery. Gastric sleeve surgery to be specific. When we had a certain insurance, the gastric sleeve surgery was available. So were the others, like gastric bypass. I chose the gastric sleeve surgery. So in 2015, after going through all the hoops, I had the surgery. In less than a year, I had went from my heaviest I'd ever been and had lost 100 pounds. I was eating better, because my stomach could only hold so much food. It was only supposed to hold 2-3 ounces of food at the time. At the time. Unfortunately, I hit that plateau most people who have weight loss surgery hit. I was exercising, but not enough. I was eating, but slowly changing the good habits I had developed. I started sliding backwards. Bad habits started taking over And eventually...  I just slid. It was slow... but I started gaining that weight back.  My stomach pouch expanded. I could hold more food... which meant I was eating more. Which meant I was gaining more weight. And so it continued.... continues. It's one of the reason I am doing my best to meal prep. Make my meal preps the size I need them to be, not the size that I would normally eat. There used to be a way to reset the pouch, but only drinking protein shakes for a few days...  and only protein shakes.  I'm not sure if I can do that... but it may be an option. I don't want people to think that I thought surgery was the easy option... because it definitely wasn't. It was life changing. I had that opportunity... and I squandered it, and it's something I have to think about and work with every day of my life now.  So, this accountability project... everything... is really important to me. To get me going back to how I was. There's more to this story, but that's for another day. Thanks for listening mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates, it's me, David. Today is January 11th. And here I am, being late today. Time slipped away from me and well... my apologies. Like Gandalf says, a wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to. I guess this episode is like that. With the past episodes, I've talked about my day to day. In some of the episodes coming up, I'm going to talk more about my history. To kind of break up the routine of things. You'll notice today's episode is titled Walking with Samwise. I was messaging a bit with my friend Emily, and I related myself to Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. He starts out being a rotund hobbit who is really just gardening, eating and drinking. By the end, he's slimmed down, tightening his belt beyond the notch marks, and well.. that is one fictional character I just relate to. Sam did a lot of walking. Like, watch the movies. They're constantly walking. And that's what I'm going to start doing. Walking. Walking will get me moving, get me outside, get that blood and body moving. I have some goals in mind for my walking. One that I stumbled across was a person on instagram called JoggingJackSparrow. He does the Run Disney events dressed as Jack Sparrow. And I think one of my long term goals is to build up to a 5K and hopefully meet him. But for now... I'll be walking. In some future episodes, there may be some content warnings ahead for things like body dysmorphia. I'll make sure to put the warnings at the start of the show notes and episode just in case. It's coming. There are things I haven't talked about publicly except with family and very close friends. And I feel the need to share it... because, well. I do... I hope everyone had a good Wednesday, and whatever you set out to accomplish, you achieved some fraction of it. Onward to tomorrow, mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com 

Hey mates. It's Tuesday, the 10th. I saw something today that I wanted to touch upon and how it relates to what I'm doing. So the thing I came across was essentially... be 1 percent better than you were yesterday. I've probably seen that a few times before, but it's really something that just got to me. Everything I've talked about has been baby steps. And this is no different. If I drink 20 ounces of water today, then tomorrow... 21 ounces, and the next day, 22... and so on. And those numbers don't have to  be exact... but just as long as you keep working at it. Keep improving. Keep doing something better. That's something I'm going to look at every morning. To remind myself. To take those extra steps. To eat better snacks. To keep at this each, and every day. I ate ok today, and drank plenty of water. I feel like today was a good day, food wise. Especially with water. I drank more water than I have in awhile. And not the most I need to drink... but like I said... baby steps. Yesterday, I mentioned that Paul suggested LaCroix. He messaged me today to suggest Pamplemousse, Tangerine, Peach-Pear, and Hibiscus... if you can find it. So for those who need that carbonated drink in their life, check out these flavors. Let me know what you think of them! Tomorrow is a new day. And I'll be one percent better than I was today. Thanks for listening, mates. You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com.

Good Monday mates! I hope everyone enjoyed the final week of NFL football over the weekend, and enjoyed watching Georgia stomp TCU in the college final tonight.  So, let's get down to business. I did my weigh in. My first one since New Year's Day. And if you've been listening from the beginning, you know I gained 5 pounds between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I did what I did the past week. From meal prep, to eating ok, to not doing so great, to eating out. But I got on that scale this morning. And I'm down a pound. It's those little things. I'm glad that the scale reflected that work I was able to put in and it goes to show that if I can get my brain focused more, my body focused more, that this is the first pound of many future pounds. My Monday was extremely chaotic in the afternoon and evening. So whatever plans I had kind of got thrown out the window. But, tomorrow is a new day.  My friend Paul sent me some tips and suggestions. He says "Pickles. I don't know how you feel about dill pickles but those were my best friends for snacking. Snacking was my biggest downfall. A fair bit of salt but zero calories. This one is weird so I get it if it doesn't sound like your cup of tea: Very often for lunch I'd have a can of sardines packed in olive oil, some low carb crackers and an avocado. Lots of protein and natural fats to keep you feeling really full but low on calories. Costco generally has good quality sardines that are a little lower on the fishiness scale. Also, lots of water and LaCroix for that carbonated beverage fix" I'll be back tomorrow and we'll keep those baby steps going! You can find me on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ Or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

Hey mates. It's the end of the week. The first full week of me doing this. This podcast. Doing what I can to keep myself accountable, and you listening and letting me know your thoughts and recipes and everything in between. Tomorrow is my weigh in day. I'll be weighing in after waking up, and seeing what the scale says. I know I didn't do the best. There were several times where my baby steps were maybe just micro baby steps. Or ant baby steps... I don't even know what an ant baby would be called. But, I did what I could and that's what I can ask of myself for this past week. I know I could have, and should have done more. But I did what I was mentally able to do, and that's the key thing. And I start gearing up for this coming week.  I didn't meal prep at all today. Today, Michelle had a girls night out with some of her friends. So I hung out with the kids and the pup and watched football and did some house cleaning and laundry. Also, fun fact, and you may have seen me post about it on socials... but the dentist tells you to floss. So what did I do? I flossed. And chipped the bottom of one of my front teeth. Like... the side where my tongue is. It's a weird feeling, but luckily, the tooth seems ok otherwise, and I have a dentist appointment already scheduled for this week. Well, my friends, my mates. Thank you for listening this first week. No matter where am I in the journey, I am wishing you the best on whatever your journey is. Thank you so much for those who've sent me recipes, motivational reels and stories, and everything else. Talk to you tomorrow! You can find me on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ You can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

It's Saturday mates, even though I'm recording this as it's about to become Sunday here in Orlando. I got caught up watching the Tennessee Titans play the Jacksonville Jaguars. Spoiler alert, Jacksonville won. Today was... a setback day. I'll be straight up honest with everyone. The morning was fine. I had a decent breakfast. A sausage and egg burrito with onions and peppers. I had my coffee. Things were trucking along. Then we had lunch and went to a Mexican place. I'm not sure how badly I ate. I tried to choose the best I could. I had 2 enchiladas with mole sauce. I also had some of the refried beans on the side and a forkful of rice. I did however not eat any of the chips and salsa on the table. Small victory there. My mother in law made a caribbean soup for dinner, with chicken, potatoes, and dumplings in it. I ate some of the chicken, but the carbs got me. I had few bites of potato and dumpling. And then, I had cookies. Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies I made in the oven for the evening. I'm not going to kick myself and beat myself up too badly about it... but I know I need to do better. And I know I can do better. I also realized I talk about chicken and eggs a lot on the podcast, especially in my titles. I groaned internally yesterday when I saw them. So mates, I'll do my best to try not to reference it as much as I did this week. Tell me how your weekend has gone so far with eating. Do you have any tips or tricks when you go out to eat? Trust me, I looked for healthier options... but those healthier options came with a pretty hefty price increase. Let me know and reach out on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ Or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com

TGIF to all my mates. It's the first Friday of January. The first Friday of babysteps. Another short episode today. I cooked the second batch of the chicken I had seasoned. So I have another 4.5lbs of chicken ready for the weekend. I ate ok too. I had the last of the hardboiled eggs for breakfast. For lunch, I had a morningstar farm buffalo chicken patty. Granted, not the best choice, but it's somewhat good. No bread, so that's a good thing! And then for dinner, I made a healthy chicken and veggie ramen for the family. It's SO good. I just wish our grocery store carried bok choy and shiitake mushrooms. I may need to hit up the asian grocery stores in the area to get them when I need them. I also did a nice walk around our block today when walking the dog earlier today. The weather was really nice and I hope it stays like this for the next week or two. I'm not sure how the weekend is going to play out, as far as eating and exercising, but rest assured, I will be doing my best. Thank you all for listening as the week played out. Thanks for being my mate You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/weightmatepodcast/ Or you can email me at weightmatepodcast at gmail dot com