Welp, it’s been ALMOST 2 months, and I’m down 48ish pounds. After the first 5 weeks of dropping weight like Crazytown. No, not the band. Or maybe the band. Did the band lose weight? WHATEVER, I lost a ton of weight fairly easily by simply following three rules:

1. Drink only water
2. Eat 1300-2000 calories a day
3. Don’t not do 1 or 2

Of course, when you have 100 pounds to lose (and I mean, you physically have 100 pounds to lose and it won’t make you unhealthy), the first 30-50 aren’t the hard part. As of today, June 26th, I’m at 276ish pounds and now the real challenge is ON.

Although I did not break my fitbitty steps record for the Monday through Friday window…I did crush my weekend warrior record:

A lot of times these days, I’m just looking for any excuse to get moving so that I can eat more food. I mean, if that’s not the American Dream, I don’t know what is.

When rocks needed cleared out from the front of my house, I thought “Well hey, there’s a nifty little weekend project that I can do and burn some calories!”

I was so wrong. The little old lady that lived here before me put down a TON of plastic under the rock so shoveling was a nightmare.

Believe it or not, that’s 3 straight ours of work and about 12 wheelbarrows full to the brim – No thanks

So I rented a mini backhoe for the next day and it all worked out.

Other than that, hey, I officiated a wedding!

I 100% broke my “no booze in the state rule” BECAUSE I MARRIED PEOPLE.

I was still under my calorie count for the day even with the booze (I did not hit Taco Bell or any other crap on the way home, which is going to help that EVERY time)

Don’t worry, I made sure to sign the guest book appropriately:

My weekly goal for next Monday July 3rd is 270. (This week’s was 275 and I think when I wake up tomorrow I might be a little under that so I’d say this one was close enough to call it a win.)

Here’s a video summing it all up, have a great week everyone!

Ever since I broke my record with 150,000 steps about 60 days ago, I’ve been having some major hip soreness that refuses to go away. Every attempt I’ve made at walking/exercising/sleeping has created more soreness so I’ve been not in the best state and definitely not losing weight. Thankfully I’ve got an appointment with a hip specialist in 2 days so they can tell me what’s going on. I’m REALLY hoping they’ll tell me to do a few exercises and pop some ibuprofen and stop being a little wuss. Of course I’m just scared of doing anything that’s going to exacerbate the issue so some clarity will help. After Tuesday I’ll have 135 days left to lose about 50 pounds (I’ve put about 10 back on since getting down to 264), so it’s definitely doable, but if the doc says I have to limit walking or being mobile I’ll just have to cut my calories pretty significantly and that will make for a realllllly boring 135 days.

Here’s to hoping I get some good news!

This post is about my current weight loss, but it’s like one of those inane recipe websites where the actual recipe is down at the bottom and you have to learn about the chef’s grandma’s house in Kansas and what part of the marinade is “just my favorite because my daughter and I learned how to make it together becau—” OH MY GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TELL ME HOW HOT THE OVEN NEEDS TO BE RIGHT NOW.

A lot of things have changed in 5 years since my last post. I pretty much took the sign from the universe that my hips suck as permission to be a big ole piece of shit, topping out at 340.40 pounds. One of the funniest men to ever grace this dumb planet, Chris Farley, was 296 when he died. Fucking yikes.

Back then the hip specialist I went to back in 2017 told me I have a torn labrum in my hip.

The doctor tells me it’s not really going to get any worse, but it’s also not going to get any better. So there’s just been hip pain every time I’ve tried to walk for extended periods of time and I really inflamed it when I was walking miles and miles and miles back in 2017. He also let me know that I have pistol grip hips which sounds so much more badass than it is.

All this means for yours truly is that I’ll be looking at a hip replacement in my 50’s rather than maybe my 60’s or 70’s. FUN!

Knowing that my hips suck should just have been a wake up call that I need to put less stress on them overall (lose wieght), or at least get to a place where I was more mentally healthy so that I could prioritize my health over the needs of others (therepy). Instead I tried different things over the years to try to lose some pounds like juicing, fasting, calorie counting. Then I tried to cope with that not going well by drinking myself to sleep a lot of nights, which I’m not sure if you know this, isn’t great.

I was pretty depressed about that shit for a while, but through actually going to a therapist I’ve put myself in a position to do something about everything (I’ll get to that here soon I swear).

Turns out I’m a completely self-aware ego driven narcissist with low self esteem and a drinking problem, histrionic tendencies involving conflation and exaggeration, and severe ADHD. This is my diagnosis, not my therapist’s. It’s a smorgasbord of terrible. I copied and pasted the definitions of these things in my journal and highlighted the parts that I do have and crossed out the ones I don’t and it looks something like this:

Narcissistic personality disorder involves a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy and lack of consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration. Others often describe people with NPD as cocky, manipulative, selfish, patronizing, and demanding.

Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental health disorder that includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. Adult ADHD can lead to unstable relationships, poor work or school performance, low self-esteem, and other problems.

Problem Drinking is described as missing important events in favor of drinking, experiencing a strong personality shift with alcohol (anger, violence, depression, etc.), excessive spending after drinking, conflicts with friends or family members while drinking or as a result of drinking.

By talking with a professional therapy person lady doctor, I’ve been able to figure out where a lot of this stuff comes from and how to get better at managing it. I’m on ADHD meds, and I’m attempting to curb my impulsive behavior as much as possible. The issue I thought that I’d run into is by curbing impulsive behavior I’d start to shut down charity events and doing things for others as much and that was terrifying to think about. I started the damn charity after drinking some beers and announcing that I was doing it randomly and impulsively and now we’ve donated over 100 thousand dollars to charity. I think I was always looking at impulsive decisions like that as my easy out if it failed. “Well shit, I mean how was that possibly going to work in the first place? I came up with that and did it in a freakin day” Fortunately, most impulsive charity events have turned out just fine and we’re doing our SIXTH Inappropriate Trivia event in June which I really am looking forward to.

That’s enough of a digression into my bullshit. Here’s what’s going on right now. I decided that I was going to finally try to lose weight the correct way. Completely changing my habits and focusing only on my eating. In order to hold myself accountable, I created a weight loss challenge for anyone that wanted in. We started back on March 15th. 24 people ended up signing up. The deal is we weighed in then, and we’ll weigh in August 1st. Over the course of 5 months there will be a weigh in every 3 weeks to make sure that everyone has lost at least 2 pounds since their last weigh in for accountability purposes. It was free for everyone to sign up. Oh yeah, and if at the end any single one of the 24 people beats me in percentage of body weight lost, I’m going to pay them $500.00. I’ve individually bet 24 people. If everyone beats me, I’d be paying out $12,000.00.

So far, I’m losing to one person. As of the first weigh in (3 weeks in) I was down 20 pounds or 6 point whatever percent. My friend Mo is down 7 point whatever percent of her body weight. If the challenge was over, I’d owe her $500.00. I would be beat the other 23 contestants. That feels good so far, but it’s SO far from over. I love the competitive nature of this, and it’s been fairly easy to change my habits after the first 10 days or so. Those first 10 days sucked just trying to remember what I was doing. “Oh yeah, you can’t just pull into Taco Bell and get food” or “Nope you aren’t drinking tonight.”

One thing I’m LOVING about this is the shift from just beating me (that’s still front and center, of course) to the all out losing weight as a group thing that I’m going to try to further stoke. I posted this graphic of all of us in the challege after the first weigh in as we had collectively lost 191 pounds, or the exact weight of one Josh Hartnett.

As of today’s writing, it is day 26 and I’m down 26 pounds. I haven’t worked out hardly at all. One treadmill session, one jump rope attempt, a few basketball games with the kids I mentor at the high school, a few walks with the dogs. This has all been done by amending my eating and drinking.

So here’s the jump to the recipe part of this. This is exactly what I’ve been doing for the last 26 days:

20 days of the 26 days:

1. Eat one meal of exactly 420 calories between 5am and 12pm
   • This is a meal consisting of 4 eggs, spinach, onions, and jimmy dean turkey sausage crumbles and Frank’s Red Hot – this is a large enough meal that it keeps me full until the next one
     
2. Eat one meal of exactly 530 calories between 12pm and 5pm
   • This is meal consisting of 97% fat free turkey breast, mixed veggies, roma tomatoes, corn, mexican seasoning, and Frank’s Red Hot – it’s a version of taco soup and it makes about 3 full cups so the volume is incredible for the calories and it feels like I’m overeating but I’m not.
     
3. Eat one meal of 800-1000 calories between 5 and 8pm
   • This is whatever I decide to preplan the day before or the day of, I’ve done Ribeye Steak and Lobster Tail, Shrimp Po Boy wraps, Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches, turkey burgers, blue cheese grilled chicken wraps.
     
4. If i’m awake after 8pm I’ll eat one snack of 380 calories
   • This is either full fat movie theatre butter microwave pop corn or a lower calorie popcorn but then also cut up berries (straw, blue, rasp) with a drizzle of honey over them.

The other 6 days I wasn’t able to eat my home cooked stuff because I was out of town or I went to a restaurant or we were driving for an extended period so I snacked on beef jerky, protein bars, or looked up the menu before we got to the restaurant and pre-selected what I was going to eat.

This works out to be an average of 2330.00 calories per day. Previously I was eating 3,500 to 10,000 calories in a day depending on the day. Yes, 10,000 calories is actually pretty easy to do if you’re just binging and not thinking. Most of the time I’d be around 4-5,000. I look at this like I want to be 230 pounds, so that’s 2300 calories a day. That’s a gross oversimplification but when you are this fat it honestly doesn’t matter about the breakdown of carbs, fats, protein, calories burned, or anything else. That’s going to come into play when I hit 275 or so as I’ll need to burn some additional calories to keep going at a good pace on weight loss, but even if I didn’t burn those additional calories, I’d still very slowly be losing weight just be eating 2330 calories even at 275 pounds, even at 250 pounds…after that it’d probably be close to a maintaining weight. I’ll point out that it’s going to be 100000% easier if you pay attention to carbs/fats/protein/calories burned/etc because protein makes you feel fuller and carbs help you with energy for the day and fats help you feel satiated as well. It’s also going to be much easier if you do what I’m doing and you eat healthier foods to hit that 2330 rather than one McDonalds Big Breakfast Platter and 86% of a second one every day.

So that’s it. That’s my “secret” to weight loss. It’s fucking boring. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day as many days as I can, then I eat something interesting but not super heavy for dinner, and have a light snack later on at night.

A few takeaways that have really helped me out so far:

• Don’t be afraid to go to bed. Many nights I’m in bed between 8 and 9pm, when previously I’d be up til 11 or 12 for fear that I wouldn’t be able to watch a movie or tv show I really wanted to see. Spoiler alert, those movies and shows still exist the next day, and the sleep is SO much better for all aspects of life.
• Change your routine/don’t plan your social and work life around food and drinking. I used to hit up Bdubs or Wings etc after work for a beer with different friends almost every night of the week. I do see my friends less often now, but when I do see them I have more to catch up on with them. I also used to crack open a bottle of Jack to relax on the couch pretty much every night of the week. I used to go out for huge weekend breakfasts or go out for lunch meetings. I used to join in with the office with they would order Taco Bell for lunch. I used to just swing through the drive-thru because I didn’t have a plan for what I was eating that day.
• PLAN PLAN PLAN PLAN. You can’t change anything if you don’t plan for it. What are you going to eat tomorrow? The next day? Here’s maybe something controversial…instead of going for that hour walk everyday that burns 250 calories, spend that hour meal prepping and meal planning and save 500 calories every time you eat.
• Tell people to pound sand. Politely. Every opportunity to go out drinking, every opportunity to join people for lunch, go out to dinner, etc etc etc is a decision that you have to make. Most people don’t know that you’ve changed your life for the better so they’re just offering what you’ve alwasy said yes to. You don’t need to tell them anything other than, “no thanks, I’m good”. Zero explaination needed, your true friends will completely understand, support, and be SUPER happy for you. If anyone tells you “well, I mean come on you need to have a cheat meal to stay sane” or “it’s just one drink.” Fuck that person right off. They’re either jealous you’re doing something they can’t do so they’re projecting that insecurity onto you, or they really do think they know better than you and are sincerely trying to help. Both versions are still fuck-off-able. I’ve been hit up by 4 different people regarding some pyramid scheme, multi-level marketing, cult like shake to drink or pill to take blah blah blah. Looking at you, Troy from my old job in California. “I’m so happy you’re doing this and I KNOW joining our plan will help you even more AND you can influence so many more people with your healthy lifestyle!” That means: “I’m so happy I have the opportunity to use you to make money and use your influence to make money off so many more people.” RUN.

Lastly, I was thinking about that 10,000 calories. To show you how easy it actually is, here’s an example of a Sunday funday I’ve definitely done more than once:

McDonald’s Breakfast: Big Breakfast with Hotcakes, Sausage Egg and Cheese McGriddle, Egg McMuffin, Large Sprite. 2540.00 Cal.

Wing’s Etc lunch: Larado Burger, Side of Fries, Side of Mac and Cheese, 7 boneless wings with ranch 2690 Cal

Matinee Movie: Large Popcorn, Raisinettes, Diet Coke – 1320

3 beers, 10 ounces of Jack 1050 Cal

Pizza Hut Dinner – 4 Stuffed Crust Extra Cheese Pepperoni and Sausage, 16 boneless mild wings with ranch, 1/2 an order of cinnasticks 4800 calories

Total: 12,400 calories. In. One. Day.

Now, I’m eating just slightly more than that in an entire week, so it’s decently easy to see why I’m losing weight. These changes are hopefully sustainable for the rest of my life, I really do feel different this time, but who knows, maybe I’ll fall off the wagon tomorrow and then you can go all “told ya so”. Looooove you.

Cheers!

Ben

It’s getting easier.

Unintended positive consequences of living a healthy lifestyle:

• Sleep is easier to come by at night
• Not groggy during the day
• Not sluggish after eating
• Motivation is not a problem in the least
• Waking up before my alarm goes off is common

Unintended negative consequences of living a healthy lifestyle:

• My adhd is more out of control than it’s been in a while
• My irritability is higher than ever
• Existential thoughts of “this is fine for now but is it sustainable forever” creep in all the time
  • Existential thoughts creep in all the time about everything. Anyone else? I get lost down the rabbit hole of my own thoughts when something negative happens, but not dwelling on the negative thing itself. It’s more of a “I can’t believe I got so worked up over a gentleman not understanding we don’t hang gutter in 50mph winds when in reality we are all bags of meat flying through the void of space”
    • But I digress….

I’m down about 26 pounds since 3/15, and I still haven’t exercised so that feels good but bad. I KNOW by now I should be exercising regularly. Instead I’m choosing to fill my time with work. It’s the run up to the busy season and there are so many things to do. Then again, there are ALWAYS things to do even when I was the most caught up I’ve ever been in the history of my life….like when I was 9.

It comes down to making the time.

I’m going to go hit the gym

Some days you wake up before your alarm and you feel that motivation to get out there and make it the best day you can. Today is that day. I have somehow bookended this Friday am with a Thursday night comedy show and a Friday afternoon round of golf/making dinner for some close friends. Who knew the secret to motivation was having something fun to do on both sides of the project you need to get done.

Dinner last night was at an Italian Restaurant before seeing Tom Segura at the Morris with Bailey and some friends.

Calories: 3900

Calories: 700

I felt full enough after dinner to not really care about not having anything at the comedy show, I still had a great time, and I’m realizing more and more that I eat like Agustus Gloop on death row just because I never gave a shit enough about just NOT DOING THAT.

I hope you read this and decide to go crush your day. Make a plan, get after it. Great things will happen.

It’s pretty easy to drop weight when you completely, totally, and fully change your entire lifestyle immediately, and stick with it for 6 weeks.

I still haven’t exercised. The people in my little “beat Ben” group have done a mix of working out and not working out, but the biggest changers have been those who have focused on what they are eating everyday.

I’m never going to be that person that loves cardio. I’ve never loved cardio. I will never love cardio. It’s just not something I’m looking forward to.

That being said, I have a ton of money on the line and I KNOW I’m going to have to start doing cardio if I want crush my enemies. Time to go full Arnold:

Ok, maybe not FULL Arnold yet.

One thing I have honestly noticed about the lack of exercise is that I know for a FACT when I think about eating these days, I think of it in terms of what I would need to do in the gym to burn off what I’m putting into my body. Moreover, the fact that I don’t want to HAVE to go to the gym to burn off what I’m putting into my body, so I just don’t eat like crap in the first place…and so far, SUCCESS! Dropping weight without going to the gym is a vibe that I can get into long-term.

Back to this little weight loss group of misfits…as a group, we are doing pretty damn spiffy. Collectively, we are down 284.10 pounds…better known as 1 Lou Feffigno!

As with EVERYTHING in life. Consistency is key. I’m really looking forward to the next three weeks of this challenge. I definitely think it’s possible to hit 299.00 three weeks from now so that’s my goal.

Right now I’m in 2nd place overall behind my friend Jeremy who is CRUSHING it with 10.54% of his body weight just GONE…you love to see it. It’s my hope that everyone doing this (and everyone reading this) crushes their own goals. I’m happy to share anything about what I’m doing beyond my dumb words here. Just leave a comment, or msg me on Facebook, or Twitter, or skywriting, or smoke signals….or yell at me in public.

Cheers!

5am is a LONELY time in Vegas.

I walked this hallway every morning between 5am-8am depending on the day (which is 7am-10am Central Time…better known as sleeping in)

My college buddy Nick turned 40 and a group of 20 of us went out to celebrate. Nick is one of the luckiest guys as casino winnings go that I’ve ever known. He and I were in Vegas in ’06, walking through The Sahara en route to the airport and he sidetracked, put ten bucks in a slot machine, and won 3,000 or so on his second pull. Every single one of our mutual friends has a story just like that. You love to see it. I’ve NEVER been that guy. I take 500-1000 bucks to Vegas and lose it and I’m fine with that because it’s a fun time and you never know….right? Welp…this trip…you never know turned into I FUCKING KNOW. HOLY SHIT.

I sat down at the blackjack table as my other friend was running a marathon (great job btw Luke!). I turned my money into their money into my money to the tune of walking away UP just about ten thousand dollars after taxes. It was an INCREDIBLE “heater” as the kids say. I was doubling down, splitting, slapping the table, standing up, sitting down, praying, cursing, calling the pit bosses and dealers by name…..at 8am. Sober.

I will say; flying with 10,000 dollars on your person is awkward and it just FEELS wrong.

Besides winning money, I saw Dr. Strange 2 (loved it, Sam Raimi for the WIN), went to the pinball hall of fame. (I could spend literal days there), and read books (The Go-Giver, thanks for the tip Cory!).

As soon as we were seated on the flight home, one cell phone alert after another, cascading like a stack of dominos, tumbled into my ear canal:

The most turbulent take-off of my life ensued, and although I was never sincerely worried, there were a couple of quick thoughts. Mainly, “Of course you win money in Vegas and then the plane crashes”. Luckliy, those thoughts were as fleeting as the rough ride. 10 minutes and 35,000 feet later, I was thinking about what to do with my new found bonus income.

This morning I grabbed 2,000 of my winnings and headed to work, handing out 100 dollar bills to everyone at my company. I am really trying hard to be transparent and honest with everyone in my life. If it’s employees, friends, family, or strangers…I’m finally learning it’s much easier in the long run to just tell people what happened good or bad and let other people deal with their feelings about that however they choose (thanks therapy!). I told everyone that would listen about my good fortune and shared financially with them what I wanted to. I’ll make a few thousand dollar donation to Nate Loucks over at the PAX Center here in town, and then I’m buying a pinball machine!

Finally, lastly, and before I go: I stepped on the scale this morning at work and saw it read 299.6. I’m under 300 for the first time in 5 years and it feels wonderful. Still not exercising, just eating like you know, not a total human garbage disposal. Vegas was tough because of the portion sizes and plethora of choices bombarding you at every turn. I decided the best course of action there was getting up at 5-7am, getting coffee, having my first food around 1-2pm which was a caesar salad with or without chicken, and then eating again for dinner 7-8pm where I had a more “normal-for-vegas” 1500-1800 calorie meal of chicken wings or a shrimp burrito. I did have m&m’s from my mini-bar Saturday night for 440 calories. My friend Mike and I were texting over the weekend and I got a text back after I told him that I won: “Dude! That’s phenomenal! But no. That doesn’t mean you can lose your contest now! haha!”

The next weigh in is Monday the 16th, I’m hoping for another 3 pounds gone by then. 296.6 has a nice ring to it!

Quick update because COVID has decided to show up at the fambiz and run through about 1/2 of our staff so I’m actually back out in the field doing estimates and so is my DAD. 68 years young and he’s going to show this whippersnapper a thing or two about life in the gutter.

I had alcohol a few times this month and I’m down 42 pounds overall and I’m trying to find that balance of weight loss and still having a good time with my friends and family etc etc etc yadda yadda yadda.

Speaking of that weight loss….it’s been a SHIT SHOW for the contest…I’ve somehow managed to get to the top of the leaderboard and we’ve dropped quite a few people overall. The spreadsheet below shows the 9 people in green that have lost their 2 pounds per week. (a little hard to read, so if you are incredibly curious, here’s the link): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uH7DskK0j9m_yfVt8enx3iXEkWZTXzlzrFxhvbbZn70/edit?usp=sharing

I’ve decided if anyone slips up and doesn’t lose their 2 pounds in 3 weeks I’ll move them from green to yellow. That means they have until the next weigh in to drop 2 pounds from where they currently are. If they do, they move back into green and are still in the contest. If they don’t, they move to red and are scratched from the roster like me in T-ball. (I was terrible at baseball).

Even with the show of shit that has been the contest overall, we’re STILL losing weight overall as a group. Collectively, we’re down 339.30 pounds, better known as one Year 2000 Laker’s Shaquille O’Neal:

I’m FINALLY going to start using the gym at work. The weight loss is slowing enough that in order to keep up with 3 pounds a week-ish, I’m hiring my good friend and ultimate weight lifter badass extraordinarre Cary Kirk to train me 3-5 days a week.

I have a feeling I’m going to be sore moving forward, but I’m excited to get this part of the plan going!

One other thing as far as big news is concerned….my business partner and I and my general manager Katie are moving forward with bringing Escape Room LaPorte back! We start the build out next week and we’ll also be featuring an ARCADE! Yeah buddy!

I’m being told then Ben-laddin’s Castle gives off terrorist vibes so maybe we workshop the name. All kidding aside, it’s all exciting as hell! It also means I’m selling the escape room in Michigan City to a company out of Illinois (this part is all pending and I might be eating my words here if they decide to pass for some reason….but looking good so far) They want to keep it open and keep running it so that is great news too!

Until next time when I weigh 289.9….keep pushing yourselves out there!

That’s totally me every time I lift these heavy ass weights…it’s been a lifelong pursuit that I’ve been grinding on for 20+ years. I’ve lifted 7 times (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday) This is the first lifting I’ve done in YEARS. I hired Cary Kirk to train me on Squat, Deadlift, Overhead Press, and Bench….he’s a BEAST and one of my best friends and knows his shit.

It feels great being back in the gym BUT I’ve gained 4 pounds because I feel like my body is yelling at me to eat ALL the time but more realistically I’ve been boozin it up here and there and eating more calories than I should.

So we’re going back to basics, do the thing that got you here, Benny Boy. Early bed times, no booze, no restauarant food. It’s gonna be just fine. We still have 15 people in the challenge, some have gained weight during one weigh in period and then lost to get back on track. I’ve been really lenient with everyone because I absolutely want them to stay in the contest with me (I’m lonely).

I’m super impressed with Jeremy, Mo, Jimmy, Holly, Jonah, Erin, Mike, and Susan. They’ve really done well with this and have lost weight every single weigh in. Jeremy, Mo, and Jimmy are down 16%, 15%, and 13% of their overall bodyweight as of this post (I’m at 12.72% overall) so if the challenge was over today I’d be paying out $1500.00 which I REALLY don’t want to do.

Because of the drops we’ve had….this time I did the average amount of weight people still in the challenge have lost, 20.91 pounds per person! Better known as….

A car tire! If you think about that, just imagine walking around with a car tire around your waist and how much extra weight that is on your joints, your heart, etc etc….Now I’ve got about 5 car tires to still get rid of but I digest (get it?)…personally I’m still down 2 car tires at this point and I’m happy with my progress so far.

I really really really really want to drop 10 pounds for realsies in the next three weeks so I’m focused on that and I’m going to crush it. Get after it folks!

I’ve been doing powerlifting workouts with my trainer/friend/coach/overall amazing person Cary Kirk (kirkstrength.com) for about 6 weeks now and I’m 298 pounds after being 342 down to 300 up to 304 back down to 298…getting enough to eat, protein wise, while still trying to lose weight has been hard but I’ve also had enough booze to drown an army of squirrels in June so let’s just say the weight lifting is going well and the weight loss is stagnant. The good news (for me anyway) is that there is literally one person in this competition that consistently, week after week, weigh in after weigh in, has always lost at least 2 pounds and continues to fucking crush it, and therefore currently the only person I owe 500 bucks to if the contest stopped today. He’s not the most extroverted person in the world so I’m not going to name names but…HAHAHA could you imagine? No, it’s my cousin and great friend Jimmy Pressel!

Now, we have about 4 weeks left, and although I have allowed everyone else to lose less than two pounds and still stay in the compeition as long as they lost at least 2 pounds the next time, Jimmy is the man to beat. I won’t be paying him 500 bones because yours truly is gonna dial it up and get it done. Sorry buddy, second place is still really great

I’m eating about 180 grams of protein a day these days which is great for building muscle…and Cary has me on an incrediby slow progression of weights so that every weight training session I’m adding 5-10 pounds to my sets.

Currently:

Squat = 3 sets of 5, 220 pounds

Overhead Press = 3 sets of 5, 110 pounds

Bench Press = 3 sets of 5, 170 pounds

Deadlift = 1 set of 5, 220 pounds

I like it because every week it feels like when I get into the sets, I can always do 1-3 more reps of each exercise so there’s progression and I don’t feel like I’m killing myself to get that last one up. Much like Batman, the Bane of my existence is my lower back…get it? Cuz Bane broke Bruce Wayne’s back? and like, my back has been problematic as far as pain because I’ve got a big ole gut…and…you know what, nevermind.

As a group, there are people that are still hanging in there and have gotten back in after missing their goal but then storming back and crushing it the next week. There are 7 of you lovely bastards and collectively these 7 people have lost 146 pounds, better known as one:

For the first time we had a couple of front runners not hit their weigh in goals but it’s the first time that’s happened ALL challenge so while they’re not in the money, I still think they have a great shot at finishing this thing out and giving me a run for my money….well a run for my “satisfaction of crushing their souls”, anyway. I’m still planning on being down another 10 pounds by the end of this thing which would take 1st either way,

Here’s the link to the sheet if you want to do a deep dive like a weirdo:

Weight loss progress

I’ll be back in a few weeks with the last weigh in before this thing ends!!!

Make it a great day everyone!

Let’s cut to the chase. I lost! Both weight, and money. I paid Jimmy Pressel 500 dollars because he never missed the 2 pounds per weigh in. He says he’s going to buy a kayak with the money. Look at this hadsome sonofabitch:

Then we have Jonah and Mo who “technically” missed their weigh in goals one time, so I’m still donating 500.00 to charity in both of their names. Big Comedy LaPorte and Giant Paw Prints Rescue are getting those monies:

I finally updated the sheet and I realized that Garrett also only missed his weigh in ONE time and he crushed it the rest of the time…so what’s good for the goose….is good for the Garrett. I’ll be letting him pick a charity for a donation as well. That’s awesome!

Other people in the challenge that missed a few numbers here and there but stuck with it and weighed in every time and still lost weight overall:

Not pictured mainly because I’m a dummy and forgot: Ben Blohm and Susan Swarner! Great job you guys.

And last…and definitely least:

The powerlifting has made it challenging to lose weight while still getting stronger…but man oh man do I feel GOOD. I just hit overhead press of 3 sets of 5 at 135. 3 sets of 5 on Bench at 210, Squat at 255, and Deadlift 275 for 1 set of 5…every single workout we go up 5 pounds so I’m REALLY hoping to keep that going for at least another month…which means if I take a look back at this post on September 5th I better be benching 3 sets of 5 for 250 pounds because that’s clearly the most important thing here.

But yeah…now I’m the guy putting videos of me lifting weights online, so the old gypsy woman’s curse has come true:

But hey, overall we lost 246.2 pounds, better known as one 1974 competition ready Arnold Schwarzenegger:

The link to the final weigh in sheet if you are curious.

Lastly, we’re not done. I’m taking a small vacation and then we’re going at it again starting August 11th!!

So I’m goin to end up putting on a couple pounds here over the next week I’m sure…but I’d like to start out the new session at 310 so hopefully I don’t go too off the rails here….time will tell!

Three weeks into this challenge. I’m in 33rd place out of 42 people. If the challenge ended today (thankfully we have until Christmas), I’d owe 500 bucks to 32 people. YIKES. Did I underestimate how crazy serious people take things when their own money is on the line? Most likely. The good news is the first two weeks of this I probably gained a couple pounds, I was still in relax mode from the last challenge, I was still working out pretty regularly, but I was boozin up a little and eating like crap. Once the 3rd week hit, I got back into my routine of eggs, chicken, etc…2,000 calories a day. and I’m down officially 5.5 pounds from the first weigh in. For someone my size, that’s a pretty normal fluctuation so I’m not counting that as a win in any way. First place currently is my buddy Paul who dropped an astonishing 23 pounds in 3 weeks. The terrifying thing for me is that he’s very much like me insofar as the “all or nothing” mentality, so for the challenge he might crush it and then possibly go back the other way afterwards WHICH IS BAD FOR ME AND MY WALLET. The list of people and their positions is here if you are curious: Beating Ben 2.

WordPress told me I should come up with a logo for the site, so I did. I can’t stop making logos with circle font in them. I love it.

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

― Bill Gates

“You can’t pour from an empty cup”

― My therapist

This logo is a mix of my favorite and least favorite quotes. I LOVE pouring from an empty cup. When you feel like you have nothing left to give and you are so worn out, mentally exhausted, just over it all…and you dig down and do something good for someone else, it’s about the best feeling I can think of. This whole willpowerthru thing started as a challenge to dig deep even when you don’t believe you have it and still do things. Do things. Big things. Small things. Just do things. My therapist is trying to make my life easier by telling me if I recharge the batteries a bit, take some more time for myself, yadda, yadda, yadda, it’ll be easier to give more of myself to others. But has she ever thought about the cost? What if I don’t stay up until 11 to finish that movie I wanted to watch even though I need to get up at 4:45 the following day? What if I miss out on that? Isn’t that “me” time?

No. No it’s not. That’s just a fear of missing out and I would be 11 to 18 times better off just going to bed and actually getting good sleep. (Top Gun: Maverick was still pretty great).

Despite my sleeping habits and my sore as fuck elbow from arm wrestling a brick shit house in Nashville, Tennessee 2 weeks ago, I’m actually still progressing with powerlifting. Backing up a bit, I do not recommend arm wrestling anyone that wears their sunglasses backwards on their head while speaking in a Russian accent. Drunk Ben didn’t really think that one through.

Squat right now is 3 sets of 5 for 265

Bench right now is 3 sets of 5 for 225

Deadlift right now is 1 set of 5 for 300

Overhead press right now is 3 sets of 5 for 150

I’m pretty happy with the overhead press number, that’s pretty good. I want my elbow to get back to normal so I can get on with everything.

Goal weight for the next weigh in on 9/26 is DEFINITELY 290.00 just so I’m only losing to a few people instead of damn near EVERYONE.

Let’s GO!