daniel13's Blog

It's been frustrating over the last couple months - I have managed to take off and keep off a little weight but not able to really move it down consistently. Yesterday it had moved up a little even. I weighed in at 250.2 after my run and what's worse is that's going into a weekend. 

So today (Saturday) I have somehow managed to get through the day with the HMR only. It's almost 7:30 pm - I think I will make it through day one. This is what I need to do, it's not easy. I won't weigh in again until Monday. 

Well it's Monday and I have yet to finish this post. Yesterday was really bad - I made it through the day OK - but had some major - withdrawal symptoms. Feeling normal today and still on the diet :)

I weighed 244.2 today. 

it was another bad weekend - i was hoping to go liquids only but didn't. staying at home and "not eating" is really difficult. even after a fairly good week. i didn't gain back too much though or at least the gain didn't last too long. 

i weighed 249.6 yesterday (monday morning after the morning run) - and had a significant drop more by the end of the second run, last night i weighed 245.4 (back to where i was on Friday) - who knows??? i ran again this morning and was at 244.2 - we'll see where i end up after tonight's run. i'm looking forward to being in the 30's again - it may happen this week. i'm starting to think about the skin removal surgery again. it'll set me free from this body, i feel i'm back on track.

it was as i thought it might be - i did poorly by being at home all weekend - very hard to be there and not eat. i did get the opportunity to get a start on my film - though i think i spent just as much time mowing the grass as i did editing. i gained 5 pounds over the weekend and then i couldn't run at all on tuesday. i weighed 253.4 on monday - didn't weigh myself on tuesday, yesterday i weighed 250 and tonight i weighed 245.4. i've got to do better this weekend.

i lost my big toe nail tonight. i have been beating up my feet for nearly 2.5 years now... i've had toe nails turn black three times - but this is the first time this has happened - what does one do? do i bury it and have a service? or keep it as a memento? super glue it back on? will a new toe nail grow back? it felt like i was in the movie "Fly" or "District 9". This toe has been bothering me for the last few months. 

i weighed 245.4 today.

i'm on my third day of the 2 a day runs - today was better then yesterday. Yesterday as the 2nd run started I crashed and burned. i've had this happen before. 3-4 times over the last 2 plus years i've been running. i don't know what causes it but i just feel weak all over - like i'm about to collapse. it felt that way walking over to the DAHLC. i still got dressed and on a treadmill hoping it might go away - it didn't. the first day of these double runs - Monday - went great and today was good too. For the record yesterday i weighed 245.6 and today 244.6, so it's dropping again. just need to stick with this now. 

back on the two a day runs - it's been since July 12th of 2009 since i have run this much in one day. hopefully my legs won't cramp up tonight. it's not just the run i'm also dropping down to 600 calories or less a day again. it's a defeat of sorts. it was always my belief that maintenance would not require the same effort it took to get the weight off. i think i was wrong. i thought 7 miles a day would be enough - but i'm going back to 14 a day now. it's a bit agrivating to think i need to run that much to maintain my loss - but whatever.

i weighed 246.2 today.

yesterday after my run i weighed 249. for the last few months i have weighed between 247 and 252. i need to get this weight dropping again. i stopped doing the second runs after africa because i needed the time to get work done for the site and other africa related issues. there's still much to do along those lines but when i first stopped the second run i was using the early morning time to get some work done. now i'm not. i'm running after work and getting home so tired and late enough i'm not able to work on anything anyway. i'm going back to the 2 a day runs. starting monday. it'll feel good if i can manage it. right now i'm thinking i may do this for 5 days a week. take the weekends off from the running entirely to start editing the film. i'll still be push mowing the yard (rather large yard) so i'll get some exercise on the weekends. i'm also going to try to get back on the 600 calorie a day diet. do those two things and i know the weight will drop quickly. anyway - i need to get a trip planned to florida, my mom is quite interested in seeing all the footage - she gave up the internet altogether so she has not seen any of it. a quick trip to canada has got to happen soon also, to finish filming alicia's story. i hope it's not raining too much again today. i weighed 249.2 today.

one of the things my friends covered at sxsw was how to approach the editing. i'm going to start by editing the individual stories first and then assemble/figure out the bigger picture. it makes a lot of sense as i have so much content and so many stories it's just hard to know how or if it all fits. i'm going to start with all things related to Molo Kenya. 

this makes sense as Molo is the key to everything. if we can fix Molo the effect on the local region and well beyond is staggering. Molo sits in the Rift Valley and the Rift Valley is some of the most fertile land on the planet. it's akin to what we call the bread basket here in the midwest of the US. i interviewed the tribal chief of molo and he told me that when the rift is working they can feed all of Kenya, Uganda, South and Middle Somalia, large portions of Ethiopia, Northern Tanzania and Southern Sudan.

I ran this morning - it was great. I moved it up from 6 miles to 6.85 (same the night before). I was at 7.5 miles (2x a day) before I left for Africa, so I have a ways to go to get back but it felt so good. That's over an hours time span. 

I'm making plans to head to Canada to finish filming Alicia. Her story is so cool but of course I can't share much because it'd be a spoiler. I'm also hoping to go to Spain to film/interview Iratxe - she's in Molo now and has done so many incredible things - her impact is astounding. 

I said I was going to begin to talk about "The Road to Punda Milia" - at SXSW during one of our dinners I got to pick the brains of my two film making cohorts, Jay Koski and Mitch Winkler. The advice re:organizing my thoughts/ideas and how to begin the editing process were quite valuable. The film is about International Volunteering and our dinner conversation touched upon many aspects of what this is going to be. Mitch got to see some of the footage and was very impressed with both the content and quality. 

Here are a few themes:

1. American obesity in our population and the starvation and malnutrition in Kenya. American over consumption in light of abject poverty elsewhere. 

2. Giving back what I took (you should never take more then you give), related to the first theme, but personal as I lost 160 lbs before going to Africa - basically I lived the first half of my life unfairly.

3. Quest for personal transition - on the outside and from within.

4. The transforming experience of volunteering

5. Being those without (poverty)

Not sure how these will (or if they will) be incorporated into the film but they will be on my mind as I start to organize things. 

I weighed 247.2 today.

it's time to begin blogging about "the road to punda milia" - it's way past time actually and I am working on a new blog site specifically for "punda milia" but as that film is part of the down200 film - i'll just post the blogs on both. the two films are absolutely tied together. one represents my physical transformation - the loss of 200 pounds the other my transformation from within. the road to punda milia is about international volunteering - but on a personal level it represents the start of a new life for me. 

i weighed 249.5 yesterday  

 just got back from my run and it went well - i weighed 247.0

some folks were just going into st. Johns church for easter service. i thought about iraxte (new friend from spain) and that she will be traveling today from Nairobi to Nikaru (by herself). she will spend two weeks at an orphanage their called melon. i spent a little time at melon and i loved the place. i'm worried about iraxte as my travel experience out of nairobi went very badly. 

she won't be in church today because she is not a believer. it's interesting because i now have 5 friends from Spain (4 of whom i met in africa) - none are believers. but all of them do both spain and God proud. iraxte has been in Molo for the last couple months - she'll be in Nikaru for the next two weeks - then back to Molo for two more weeks. she has done so many great things while in africa - i just wanted to share this one. 

iraxte found a couple kids in Molo who were at jeopardy to go blind. the poverty is so extreme that these kids and many kids are not able to get the proper health care they need. she took them to a specialist in Nikaru and will be making return trips for their care and has solicited and acquired special drugs from a supplier in spain. because of her efforts 2-3 kids will now have there sight, who would have otherwise gone blind. 

how great is that? who will really be in church today? how do we define a believer? is it the one who sets in church and professes belief? or is it the one who travels alone on a road filled with threat to help others? is church in a building or upon a road?

her blog 
http://iratxe-kenya2010.blogspot.com/

 It's a real challenge to get on this low calorie diet - but so far so good - I was at 255.6 five days ago and I've stuck to it for five days - I was down to 247.6 today after my run. The run went well too. Working at SMEVA all day today - trying to do my taxes today. Fun times I suppose. I weighed 247.6 today.   

It never goes away - always one strange pain or another. Now it's my big toe - turning black and hurting, leg cramps again. I got back on my 600 calorie or less diet yesterday. I bought a bunch of Progresso Tomato Soup a few days ago - and finally made it through the day without cheating. So I started at 255.6 - dropped to 252.6 last night. I have only been able to drop to about 249.2  lately - I hope now that I'm back on the extreme calorie cutback I can finally move beyond this and get back down again. Then I'll pursue Mayo for the excess skin removal surgery. It's been a long time coming. 

 I weighed 252.6 today.   

yesterday i got back to the abraham center to weigh myself for the first time since going in for emergency surgery on a hernia. that was on a wednesday and the tuesday prior i had eaton almost nothing. of course through out the surgery and initial recovery i ate a few packs of crackers and one piece of toast. just felt too nauseous to eat anything. i have heard that people typically lose a lot of weight due to surgery but i only lost 4 lbs. this was such a huge disappointment - it felt like i had lost much more. 

to make matters far worse i will not be able to run for the next 2-3 weeks. i was just starting to prepare myself to return to the two a day workouts and now it'll be no workouts. hopefully i will be able to finish the final tasks for the Chazon web site and a few other tasks related to that. i'll have more time now. 

i weighed 248.2 yesterday.

but barely - i weighed 249.8 - still counts though. i need to really concentrate now on getting back into the 230's now - if it goes as it should and if i stick tight to the calorie limit i should be there in two weeks. just need to be patient :)

i weighed 249.8 last night.  

I had another good run yesterday and a nice weight loss to -- very solid on the diet all day long - had a little too much when i go home (quite late) so not sure where I will be after the run - i'm heading over there right now... one thing had i not over-eaton last night i'd probably be looking at dropping into the 240's - too bad :(

I weighed 251.6 yesterday. 

boy these are really boring blogs! i use to put so much more time into them - lately africa just seems to take such a high priority in my life. i had another good run yesterday. the fog on drive in the last two days has been dangerous to say the least. i have been so focused on losing the entire 40 - that i realized that's just not good mentally - so for now i just want to get back into the 240"s then i'll look for the 30's just easier to look at it way. 

i weighed 255.6 yesterday.

 i had a great run, best in moths. i knew the weight would go up and it did - it'll drop just as quick. i need to really get on the diet tight.

i weighed 259.4