From the Kitchen of Couch Potato Man - Chocolate Cherry Heart Healthy Cookies

I can cook, but I don't protend to be a baker.  Can I make cakes?  Can I make cookies?  Can I make pies?  Of course!  They fit nicely in my grocery cart from the bakery section in your local grocery store.  Seriously, it doesn't take rocket science to read directions off the back of cake box.  You don't need a degree in engineering to buy a tube of cookie dough and make cookies.  Do you really need to be a mathetician to understand what temperture to defrost your pumpkin pie from the frozen food section?  Well obviously you do!  I screw up all these things all the time.  Pretty damn sad that there is good chance I will mess up cookies from a tube! 

Let me introduce you to Chocolate Cherry Heart Healthy Oatmeal Cookies!!!!  So easy, even my dumb, non baking ass can make them!  2 of my kids like them a lot!  My wife loved them.  These are damn good!  I HEART OATMEAL COOKIES!!!  Not only are these cookies damn good, but they are, really, really good for you!  Shhhhhhh, don't tell my kids!  Tons of heart healthy, cancer fighting, antioxidants ingredients in these cookies. 

I will tell you.  I didn't follow this recipe word for word.  I did a couple of swap outs. I swapped out the dried cherries for dried cranberries.  I just couldn't justify paying $7.00 a pound for dried cherries.   $7!  Are you crazy!  I'm not spending that much on dried cherries.  I also swapped out the bitter sweet chocolate for dark chocolate.  Bitter sweet chocolate is gross.  Shockingly to me, dark chocolate has a lot of health benefits.  Antioxidants and helps lower blood pressure, sounds good to me!

Get your Cliff Claven on!  I don't normally do this, but I've gone link crazy!  So much info out there!  Here is some of the many things I pulled out of outer space.

Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Health Benefits of Cranberries

Health Benefits of Oats

Did I already tell you!  I HEART OATMEAL COOKIES!!!

Eating cookies makes me......

.....have a big watermelon grin.

The Love Hate Relationship with Running

Running!  Oh the world of runners.  You see them out there.  Two different breeds.

The Ultra Fit Ones
You know them.  You see them.  They are usually decked out in the latest and greatest running apparel.  Super fit.  No body fat.  Lean muscles popping all over the place.  Oh I'm jealous, I have seen the 18 packs run by me at the marina.  (Man crushing right now!)  Running in there own little world.  Sometimes they run in packs.  They seem so easy.  So free.  It comes naturally to them.  Pisses me off!

The Out of Shape/Losing Fat/ Trying To Be Fit Ones
Now these are my people.  You know them.  The workout shorts or sweats.  Any old raggedy ass T-shirt.  T-shirt must be big enough to hide all the flaws.  Curves, bumps, fluff.....all in the wrong places.  Running with purpose.  Running to not pass out.  Its painful.  It hurts.  Its not fun.  This is NOT on the must do hobby list.

I've picked up running again.  I've been running the last couple of weeks.  Its getting easier.  I don't like to use this word that much.....BUT I HATE IT!  Hate hate hate!!!!  I know its the way to faster fat burning.  I know its one of the best things you can do on your way to better, healthier lifestyle.  But damn it!  Running sucks ass!  One big, huge thing I have learned through this journey.  You don't like doing something, no matter how good it is for you, don't do it anymore.  If I keep going, I know I will get burned out on it.  I doubt it, but I may stop on this journey.  The fear of quitting because I hate running scares me.  I'm not running anymore.  I will continue to walk.  I may be the only man out the path power walking, but it will be something I don't hate. 

These will be the only reasons I run:
1.  Angry knife wielding wife.
2.  Natural disasters
3.  Spiders

Other than that, I'm not running anymore!  This ends my running career.....well maybe.  (The Brett Farve coming out of of me).

The walks have gotten easier for me.  I'll need to step them up.  Going to add some weights for my walks.  Walk longer, walk faster.  Don't let the little old ladies pass me.  Walking has been one of the best things for me.  I crave variety, I will keep trying to new things.  Scratch running off the list.  I will give rollerblading a shot.  Those guys look like they are having lots of fun.

Play hard and have fun!

One Year Later.....

When I first started to make a lifestyle change I never ever thought I was this overweight.   No way I was this BIG, it was impossible.  Several pics later opened up my eyes.  Not only had I just let myself go, but I've fallen off the cliff twice.  You would think small signs would have jump start my change.  The constant aching knees and back.  Trouble tying my shoes.  Looking down and not seeing my man junk.   Waking up in the middle of the night because I stopped breathing.  Ssshhhh.......don't tell my wife.   Very scary stuff.   All these things and photos is what freaked me out!  Photos.  Seeing these photos was depressing and angered filled.  How did I let myself go?  Why did I let myself go?  What is wrong with me?

Believe me when I say this.  This was a hard, tough thing for me to do.  To undo years and years of living a certain way.  To come to grips with what I needed changed.  I had my ups, but my downs out numbered my ups twice over.   Its damn hard changing 20 years of bad habits.  I got use to eating what I want when ever I wanted and it didn't matter.   Well it does matter.  

Last summer I was 277.  But I'm not sure if that is right.  It took me several weeks to build up the balls to get on the scale.  I didn't want to get on there.  I knew it was bad news.  Who wants to see bad news.   The pictures were bad enough, now the scale.   I had to do it!  I needed to know my starting point.  The beginning that I did not want to see ever, ever again. 

As of this morning, I'm 49lbs lighter.  I feel great!  My knees and back don't hurt constantly!  I don't have to reach around my gut to tie my shoes.  My man junk is no longer on a milk carton.  And the best part, no more waking up in the middle of the night because I can't breathe.  The only bad thing out of this whole thing is I need to buy new clothes.  I don't have extra money to be spending on new clothes.  So in the mean time, I just make new holes in my belts.  Wear my oversized shirts.  Let my shorts hang around my ass showing my underwear (that is the style).  Thems the breaks for changing my life.

Hopefully the next 28lbs falls off fast.  200lbs coming soon to a neighborhood near you.  I hope to be visiting soon.

Last August 8/2009

8/20/10

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8/2010