Charging Elephant Blog

BOOM! Did you miss it? Before you know it you are middle aged and wondering what in the world did you to yourself. Habits are these things we do without even knowing. We eat this, we do that and then with out a warning, BOOM the habits add up and bang, your over weight and out of shape. What I am saying to all that read this, is as you might or might not know that good habit plus education can have a profound meaning in our lives. I grew up in a lower middle class family and the all American way of life of eating. Pot roast and mashed potatoes Sundays. Taco Tuesdays, Spaghetti Wednesdays and so on. Pies and deserts were after each meal and crazy to think I had seconds on all of these dishes. I got taught early on that these foods were o.k. and that milk flowed from the never ending magical cow. I started this health journey just a few months ago and spent the last 40 years on cruise control blindly. In these few months I have learned what I like, what I can handle and what I ...

It has been a few weeks since I last wrote and shared the progress on our health journey. Also regarding my leg status, I now wear compression socks and they are a beast to put on daily. Plus washing them every night has been so much fun.. not. Good news though, my swelling has gone down and the redness is getting better, in the new blog I might even show a updated picture. My goal to lose 100 lbs has been very eye opening experience in so many facets. It is now almost the mid way point to the 100 down and that is the good news, I am actually losing weight. I have wrestled with just getting off 2 lbs in a month, and mostly if anything I keep gaining. It is hard to believe that a year ago I was pushing 450 and little by little and lots of sacrifice the results are starting to show. My goal is set to lose at least the 50 and then some for my 41st birthday on May 17th, and today I learned that I have officially lost 46 lbs. So only 4 more to go!!! But this is where it gets tricky. I...

Hello Folks! It's back at it again to the health portion of this blog. I took a bit of a detour with my leg and our trip to San Francisco, Portland and back to good old SLC. UPDATE: I was not diagnosed with DVT which is really bad and people suffer with clots. I however have deep varicose veins that we can not see, like the spider veins and such. So basically I was wrapped with this medical tape and such and then pantyhose to help reduce the soreness, redness and swelling. I will be wearing compression socks from now on to keep my legs healthy and live a good life. I am a bit worried about the socks though. The above picture is of my leg and the cat is Nala in the which she loves getting petted with my foot for some odd reason. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!! RYAN'S  weight is officially 388 and has lost 44 lbs since this journey started. Today I lost another 9 lbs. as well!! Linda lost 7 lbs recently and all together 20 lbs down! !! GO LINDA!!! Team Pilkington "Pickl...

Hello to all that are following my journey and I want to apologize for my late post. I have been somewhat busy as of late. So after my stay in the hospital I was put on antibiotics and was told to hold off on our supplements and to start again when I am off of them. In the meantime Linda and I decided to take a Anniversary road trip. We dropped off Bella our dog with my sweet sister Laura and then headed to the west coast!! Linda and I had a blast and made new friends along the way since 2 out of the nights we spent them at AirBNB which for those that don't know, is where people put up rooms for nightly rentals and we book them through a mobile AP. We had a blast and went from Salt Lake to Reno through Sacramento unto San Francisco on our Anniversary day March 30th. We stayed downtown and took the trolley cars and fisherman's wharf and had some amazing clam chowder. Then we headed up to Portland and over to Idaho and back home to pick up Bella and...

So, we were just minding our own business and getting ready to go on to round 2 of a 3 day detox in our 12 week program. We had purchased the lemons, gearing up for the prep days and moving forward. Then out of nowhere... BAM!! I wound up in admitted in the hospital... I had just celebrated my small goal of being under 400 lbs. and it was amazing!! It all started with me ripping off my big toe nail, but not the reason why I was admitted into the hospital. To make a long story short let's just say that it was a series of unfortunate events. Friday night Linda and I saw the new Beauty and the Beast. Right after the movie I got the chills really bad and later that night I checked on my temperature, it was 100 degrees and held steady all night. I had to do a 10 hour shift on Saturday and headed to work feeling like crap. I stayed about 3 hours and then decided to go home in a lot of back pain and no energy. As I laid on our coach and after taking a nap, my fever was back and we d...

I want to take this time and thank all of our co workers at Comcast for being so supportive!!! Once and awhile they will go around with a "TREAT CART" filled with every snack treat under the sun. From candy bars to chips and so on. The other day we noticed some healthier options on this cart. IT was great to know they have our backs! So... the slump.. I am not to sure if it was a bad week or my body just wants to hold on to all this fluff. I can say I had a goal to lose 30 lbs by Birthday. I am confident that I can lose at least 2 more pounds until May 17th. So I did not lose anything at all. This week going into week four I am hitting the treadmill at work more and walking Bella at any chance I can. I just have to get under 400 lbs. I actually can't even believe that I weigh that much. It saddens me to think of wasted years. I have to thank a few more people out there too. LINDA PILKINGTON!!! She is walking bella around 2 miles most days and is as committed to this...

So yesterday Linda and I reached our 2 week milestone of being on this new lifestyle. I must admit it has been very challenging, trying to learn a new way to eat. Then on top of that is balancing life. One of most challenging parts was to detox for 5 days and only drink lemonade mixture for those days. I mentioned before about the dinner I attended and that I did my best to refuse prime rib and all my favorite dishes. I proved to myself that I can do hard things and I can be strong.  Every week we go to get weighed in, go into a sauna and then get body wrapped with this cream to help with losing weight and a bunch of other stuff I don't remember. When I started this journey I was 432 lbs. yesterday after my session at Elevated Health, I lost 28 lbs. Yes I am now only 404,  just 5 lbs. from my first goal of getting under 400 lbs. I want to mention that Linda has been my rock and my voice of reason through this all and she is getting healthy with me on this and she to has ...