OnePhatMan
I’m still alive.
It’s been over six months since I updated here, and a lot has happened in that period. Last time I updated this site, we’d just bought the old farm house in Smallville and were getting started on renovating it.
We’ve come a long way, baby.
I’ll get to everything that’s happened in a bit (with lots of pictures), but since this is a weight-oriented site, let’s talk about that first:
Once again, I’ve gained some weight back. It was of my own doing, a combination of tiredness (”hey, we’ve been working on house renovations all day, let’s just stop at McD’s on the way home”) and self-medication with food for severe back pain brought about by a broken office chair.
Originally, I thought the pain was from all the work I was doing on the Smallville house, and even went to physical therapy for a few weeks. Ultimately, though, it dawned on me that I’d switched chairs at work (because my old chair, a remnant from my superfat days, had finally given up the ghost) at just about the same time we started working at the other house. I switched to a new chair a couple of weeks ago and the pain went away almost overnight.
Constant back pain sucked, and there was a point where my inner drama queen had decided I was destined for a life of suffering. I can’t express how much nicer it is to have the pain gone. As with the shoulder, though, the pain led me directly to the Oreos. We all have our vices. 
Through it all, I never stopped working out six days a week.
I haven’t weighed recently, but I can tell that I haven’t gained more than 10 or 15 pounds. Whatever the number is, it wasn’t enough to push me to a bigger size in clothes, just a slight tightening around the waist of my pants. Life got back to normal this past weekend because we finally got moved into the new house. No more juggling living between two houses, driving back and forth, and all the things that come with a major life shift. My weight should drop right back down to its normal number with a little concerted effort. You all know the drill.
Best of all, yesterday I started lifting weights again for the first time in many many months. Today I have that pleasant ache in my upper body that comes from well-worked muscles. I stopped lifting weights in the middle of last year when I injured my back moving a toilet. Then, the whole back-pain-from-the-chair thing got started and I was scared to try anything that might cause my back to hurt more. But now, thank God, everything’s normal again, just in time for me to turn forty in a few weeks and have my midlife crisis.
Anyway, that’s how things are on the weight front. Now, how about some pictures from our new digs? We’re pretty pleased with the way things have turned out, and I can wax poetic about how awesome it is to be in the country where there’s a little space.
Original house walkthrough pictures are here
There are about 50 billion pictures below. Forgive me for so many; I’m proud of what we accomplished. We did the vast majority of the work ourselves except for roofing, tiles, and floors.
Front room, sitting area, before and after renovations
Same area, post move-in
Front room, TV area, post move-in
Downstairs hall, before and after updates
Downstairs hall, post move-in
Master bedroom
…and after the move
Downstairs bath
My favorite room, because of all the dark wood.
This is before and after updates.
After move. We think it looks even better with the furniture and rug.
Computer room / office
Post move (this is the other end of the room).
Still looking kind of cluttery.
The kitchen. Believe it or not, those are different colors on the wall.
Post move. Ignore the ghostly wife.
Laundry room
…which now looks tiny because there’s so much stuff in it.
The stairs. My pride and joy, because I sanded and stained all that myself.
I’m VERY happy with them, especially since I was a total noob.
Upstairs bedroom #1
…with furniture
The spud’s room
Cluttered
Upstairs bath
Upstairs bedroom number three
…and with some furniture
The plants you see in the bedroom a couple of pictures up were for this:
The garden…
…which has already delivered up some bounty
I’ve learned a lot about basic construction during the Smallville transition. Matter of fact, I learned a lot about, well, a lot of things: tractors, gardening, tools, plumbing, and wiring, to name a few.
Here are a couple of things I built.
A stoop so we can get in and out of the office easily.
A woodshed for all the wood I got while cutting down trees
But that’s not all I built. Behold…
Home sweet home for my girls, all built by me, Mr. Clumsy
We got a dozen day-old chicks back in March, to raise them for eggs.
Chickens are about the funniest animals ever. We spend a lot of time
just watching their silly antics.
Alas, this girl appears that she’s going to be a boy.
His name is Frick, short for Fricassee, and he’s far and away my favorite,
because he’s so pet-like. He loves to be held, and to ride around on my arm
like a little hawk.
I hope we never have to eat him.
So there you have it, six months of activity compressed into a few paragraphs and some pictures. Seems almost amazing I managed to gain any weight while doing all that, doesn’t it?
What about you. How’ve you been for the last half year?
If you want to get notified when I write an update, this link will do the trick.
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Wow, Fred! The house looks fabulous! I’m impressed!!!!! Those chickens…are they for pets or do you plan to use them for food? Just wondering, because I know y’all used to go buy free-range chickens.
Have a great day!!
The house looks amazing! You’ve done fabulous work.
I’m not doing so hot. I’ve gained back a few pounds from my low weight. All my own fault; I’m just hoping that with the warmer weather, my drive to work out and eat less will start surging back. It’s been a rough winter.
Fantasic Awesome Well done Man the things we can do because we are fit and healthy not fat and flabby…very impressed with the efforts enjoy u all deserve it.
And now u are settling in that extra weight will drop off again.
Wow that’s some love “mary jane” you’ve got growing there! Nice job!
Thanks, guys.
AmyMc: The chickens are for eggs only, unless they do something that forces us to eat them.
Nicole: It’s amazing how warm weather can make you want to get out and do things. A little extra activity without the extra food and things will probably take care of themselves.
Hi! This is my first visit to your site. What an amazing transformation you’ve made! Way to go you!
I also wanted to say that growing up I had to eat our own chickens (my Dad thought it’d be a good way to teach us what it was like to live on a farm) and now that we’re older none of us kids will eat chicken off the bone and only a couple of us can eat chicken at all! I force myself to but it’s very hard! Great lesson mom and dad!
I look forward to reading more.
Welcome back Fred. I remember the days when our house was going through some renovations. My husband did some of the work himself too. Your house looks nice. If you ever decide to shake and bake those birds, tell me and I will bring over the corn on the cob.
Holy smokes you two did an excellent job! Have been following the reno’s on Robyn’s site but very interesting to see the before and after shots. I think I want to marry you both and move you up to my old character house. You two have done so much more than we have in the past EIGHT years!
How did I end up here? Putting on the pounds and was looking for somewhere to buy your book. Love your philosophy on losing weight. Delighted to see you are putting it out there online
Thank you.
Hi Fred,
I read your book back in ‘04. I am glad to find that you’re blogging again… I was wondering if your wife has a blog? I happened across her flickr account, and would be interested in reading about her wl surgery. (have comtemplated it myself…)
Thanks,
Julie
Julie:
Robyn’s site is at http://www.onefatbitchypoo.com/
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A minor update: our garden is going like gangbusters now with tomatoes, corn, yellow/white/zucchini squash, okra, peppers, and green beans. I should be able to start picking black-eyed peas late next week, and melons near the end of the month. We’re eating our own veggies with every meal, and freezing and canning tons for the winter.
Growing your own food kicks ass.
Great to hear you’re doing well. Your house looks great!
cool site you have here, i just stumbled upon it today. i have a lot of back reading to catch up on.
Fred, where you at?
Fred, what a WONDERFUL job you’ve done. You have a lot of gifts! Put me on your update list to recieve future up updates. I was on before but have a new email now. THANKS! I can’t wait to see updated wt loss pictures. Shirley
Ok, Fred…it’s the New Year and still nothing from you! Where have you been??
Fred & Robyn,
Awesome job on the house. I love your chickens. I hope you don’t end up with more than one rooster … they can all look like chickens until it’s too late, and suddenly you hear them starting to crow in the mornings at around 8,9 even 10 months. More than one rooster in a small flock will have your roosters fighting each other, stressing and hassling your hens. Been there and done that. Two of my “five pullets” I bought last October started crowing this month - so here’s my shout out to you to keep watch
love the house and glad to see you back!
Dang Fred, are you ever coming back? We miss you!
Hey Fred, where have you been? I miss reading about you all! How are Robyn, the spud and the cats? Hope you’re doing well…