Rather than this blog becoming only a food log and a place for us to stay accountable we would like it to offer tips and motivation to others. Which brings us to today’s topic…
When undertaking a project like lossing weight there are several things that need to be in place to help ensure success: Continue reading
Yesterday was my first Weight Watchers meeting since signing up last week and I lost 7.6 pounds for the week (very pleased with that)… earned my 5 pounds lost star… I realize now that I really can’t say how my buddies did… don’t want to say anything that they might not want said.. so I will just say that it was great to see them and that having each other for support is going to be a great help to all of us.
Staying on the program was pretty easy.. it is a lot of work to track and plan and prepare foods… I was able to stay under my daily points everyday and not use and weekly points.
The most challenging and by far the worst meal experience was on Saturday night… Continue reading
First, let me explain my week… last Monday (6/27/11) I weighed 405.4… I started watching my foods and trying to cut way down on my intake and on what I ate… it was hard sometimes like when my family and I went to a Chinese place for dinner… I stuck to my plan and had steamed fish and veggies.. I took a bite of 2 of the dishes floating around the table… but only a bite… anyway today I weighed in at 394.0… that is a loss of 11.4 pounds in a week… my goal was 10 pounds so I am very happy!
On top of that my two best friends in the world (Stuart and Joe) contacted me and said that they were both going to be at Weight Watchers this week.. Stuart has been going and he talked Joe into going… they asked me to join too… at first my immediate response was to say no thank you.. but then I started thinking… Stuart and Joe have been my best friends since Kindergarten… that is 42 years ago.. they have always been there through thick and thin… and have always been very supportive to me.. how could I pass up the opportunity to get and give support from these two? I couldn’t.. so I sucked it up and got up on a Sunday morning and signed up for Weight Watchers.
Now I have never been involved with Weight Watchers, but I have heard good things about it… and I know that even when I have success with my own weight loss efforts they are usually short lived… the meeting was good.. the instructor was nice and knowledgeable… after the main meeting we had an orientation and the system was explained… pretty much like I figured.. instead of counting the way you do for the Richard Simmons plan you count with Points… there is an easy way to calculate points from nutritional facts.. there are a bunch of tools on the website for members to use that seem very cool… So I dove in! Started right then and there.. my official WW weight was 400.6 which with my gender and age gave me 71 points per day…
During the orientation the lady mentions that the points go from 29 to 71 max.. so that hit me too that I am at the max allowed points for their system.. at first I thought ‘cool’ but then it started to bother me… It is very cool that everything is totally anonymous.. unless I tell someone my weight or points allowed they have no idea and it is never mentioned… I like that.
So after the meeting we stood around and talked for a little while, then I went home and started learning about the WW plan.. I stuck to it with really no issue… we had a BBQ planned for dinner and decided to try a new place out here for lunch… I chose to have 6 buffalo wing appetizer and a side order of sauteed veggies and a fruit cup… It was all very good… and it was hard to watch my youngest eat a cheeseburger that had grilled cheese sandwiches on the top and bottom in place of the buns… and my middle son eating a sausage and chili omelet… but I survived… then at the BBQ dinner I was able to have a rib eye steak, grilled Portabella mushroom, baked potato with sour cream and butter, corn on the cob with butter and a hot dog (no bun) for dinner… note these were all smaller portions than I would normally have… the rib eye was a thinner cut so it was only about 8 oz where I would normally be 16 oz or more…
After all was said and done I had used 66 points so I was under my allowance by 5 points.. and it wasn’t ‘that’ hard.
So now I have a specific plan and I am going to be doing it with my buddies.. I am using the momentum of the successful week and spring boarding into another 2 digit loss week… my goal this week is 10 pounds lost.
Yesterday was a solid first day… I had temptations but was able to keep the mindset… the only slip was drinking too much pineapple juice… I planned on having 8 oz… but that became 24 oz…
Granola bar for breakfast. Lunch was 2 spears of Pineapple, 1 slice of bread with 2 slices light bologna and 3 chunks of dill pickle. Dinner was a new idea. Baked Chicken Breast with Rosemary and Lemon Glaze, white rice and roasted vegetables. Continue reading
June 27, 2011… today… this is the day that I have to turn my life around. I have to focus on the big picture while looking at the smaller goals that are needed to achive the monumental goals that I face. A friend of mine and life coach Scott Chesney posted a quote today on his facebook that fits this situation perfectly:
“You must find that place within yourself where nothing is impossible.”
Deepak Chopra
My big picture goal is to go from 405.4 (my current weight) to 228 pounds… a goal of 177.4 pounds to lose…
It has been 6 days since my last post and my baby step goal was to drink my water and monitor the intake… well I failed miserably, losing focus almost immediately after the post…
So today I start something simple… something that will hopefully keep my focus and let me achive this step… I am using a product that is from a web design client of mine (disclaimer that I have a business relationship with this site and product).. that product is found at www.positivereminder.com
As the site says..
Sometimes, the simplest things are all that are needed to make life changes. So often, what we know we need to focus on is lost in the turmoil of life. We need something to simply remind us to keep focused on whatever it is we have set as a priority or goal in life.
A very simple way to remind yourself to stay positive, but also to stay focused on the goal… I have atached apositive reminder to my water bottle on my desk and will attach more to my other water bottles…
Check out the www.positivereminder.com site, buy some positive reminders and use them to help you achieve your goals.
(disclaimer: PositiveReminder.com is a client of my web site business. I am not promoting them here for any purpose other than my beliefe that
So.. I have been toying with the thought that I have to just say “that’s it” and not wait for some major motivation that has been absent for so long… not wait to find the right thing or person that will trigger me to lose weight and get healthy… I have to quit waiting for myself to have this inner spark… I have just accept that I have to do this and do my best to do what I can to work toward my goals.
That being said I am going to work on just one health related task right now… I am going back to my ‘6 Changes’ (see those posts HERE and HERE) system and working on my first goal.. water intake.
I have posted about water intake and how to increase it (HERE) and in general I drink more water each day than I ever did before that post… but it is hit and miss and I drink too many diet, caffine free sodas right now… so it is back to the measured trick that I used in that post. Tonight I will be marking a couple of water bottles and starting again.
Tomorrow I will be hydrated… and I will continue to be hydrated every day… in one week I will look at the next area to work on.. Impulse Control
On February 14, Valentines day, 1981 I was fed up with being alone and not having anyone special to be my valentine and I was also fed up with being fat… at 6′ 5″ and 273 pounds I was about 60-65 pounds overweight… so that night I told myself that I would have someone the next Valentines Day.. and to do that I became the most focused I have ever been on weight loss… to the point of over doing it initially, losing 31 pounds in the first 30 days and beginning to not feel well.. weak… that first 30 days was me weighing in and if I hadn’t lost a pound that day then I wouldn’t eat… water only fast until I was “below the line” on my weight graph… when I was below the line I would eat yogurt, plain turkey breast sandwich and a banana… that’s all… I worked out everyday without fail… I watched Richard Simmons’s TV show and tried some of the recipes… and I ran, every night, increasing my distance every couple of days… I hung a bicycle handlebar over a rafter in the garage and tried to do a pull-up… every night I tried and tried.. in the beginning I didn’t really move at all when I tried… but eventually, after I lost 75 pounds in 1 year, I was able to do a pull up.. actually I got to the point where I could do several… I remember that feeling when I was able to pull my chin up to the rafters and the feeling of accomplishment… happiness… I was running miles each night and a 6 mile cross country course about 3 times a week… I played racquetball and Basketball… I got down to 198 pounds and looked ‘thin’ for the first time in my life.
I leveled off at around 205 and held that for a couple of years… then I started gaining around the holidays each year.. 15-20 pounds that I would keep until the next holiday.. there were ups and downs in my life and my weight… when I was happy I got ‘comfortable’ and would gain weight… sometimes when I was sad I would gain too… The largest single weight gain occurred when I quit smoking… I had heard that the average weight gain was 11 pounds.. so I focused on staying below that.. and I did for about 3 weeks.. then I relaxed… and gained over 80 pounds in about a year… and then just kept on creeping up to the 400+ pounds that I am today… 30 years of rollercoastering up an down and up and up… that is ridiculous and insane.. I am a smart guy.. I know exactly what it takes to lose weight in a healthy way.. I know about exercise and diet and mental focus… I know that my upbringing was a big part of why I am obese.. I know all that.. yet I am still inactive… I still eat poor choices in large quantities.. I enjoy the instant gratification and don’t think about the long term… why? Why is the question.. Why am I not doing everything I can to regain my health and extend my life? Why am I not doing ANYTHING to accomplish this goal?
I have lost weight before.. I have been active before… I have all the tools I need.. I have an exercise bike.. an elliptical.. a Kinects with Fitness program… Richard Simmons DVD’s.. a jump-rope.. all sitting gathering dust… I have the ability to make whatever choices I want for my breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks… there is no reason that I couldn’t start eating healthy, smaller portions right now and stick to it until I am at my goal weight… the only thing stopping me is me! My ‘block’ is what is preventing me from being the person that my family deserves. I hesitate in calling it a block for fear of giving it more power by assigning a name to it, but it has been powerful enough for all these years that I don’t think it will matter. That ‘block’ needs to be destroyed for good.
A few years back I wrote a personal mission statement which was to give me direction in my life.. I am taking this moment to define for myself what I will do right now for me. This is my new Personal Health Mission Statement:
I will make myself (my health specifically) my number one priority. I will take steps now to be more active each day. I will prominently display my weight on a graph over my scale and on my blog and update it everyday. I will focus on making the right choices for my food intake both in quality and quantity. I will not punish myself for lapses in my focus.
As the late Randy Pausch said in his ‘Last Lecture’… “Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.” I have allowed a brick wall to keep me out for too long… I need to want this badly enough now.
Also, it took me much more than 1 year to get that special Valentine… I had Valentines through the years… but it wasn’t until 15 years ago that I finally found the special one 😉
So I have become intrigued by a new website called 6Changes.com (brief post HERE)
Well today is the first day of 2010 (Happy New Year!) and we start fresh… a clean slate (and plate) So today I set my 6 habits that I will create in 2010 Continue reading
Hello 2010… With a new year comes new challenges and some of the same old ones… The post today is about changes, more specifically changes in habits.
Recently I found a new website by the author of a blog that I like Zen Habits… this new site is 6 Changes… while the tag line states “It’s the antidote to the failure of New Year’s Resolutions.” I think it is more than that. Continue reading