So those of you that are members of Richard Simmons Website know that he is helping us do a 30 day challenge in the month of April… no I will admit, I didn’t start mine until yesterday (4/6/09) so mine will go a little into May. The idea is that we each set goals to improve ourselves for the next 30 days.
I though about what my goal should be quite a bit… and I came up with one theme for them all.. “Back to Basics”… and that made me cringe because that was the term way overused by supervisors at my former employer… every time I heard it I just though “come on.. be a little more creative”.. and now here I am using it in my own life… great 😉
So with that in mind I started to set my 30 day goals (let’s take them one at a time): Continue reading
I have been having problems with some fast food binging the last few days… do great all day then lose it at night so I figure what if I commit to post exactly what I eat everyday (for a few days at least) to make myself accountable and have to show the world what I ate… Continue reading
Today I found a site that is called This Is Why You Are Fat… it is basically a colection of food that people have submitted that are ‘CRAZY’ fattening.. and look oh so good 😉 I suggest you look at the archive to get the full effect.
So this got me thinking… Exactly ‘why’ am I fat?.. I mean I understand the intaking more calories than what I burn.. and that my diet needs to be balanced and I need to be active… blah blah blah… that’s not what I am talking about… what I am saying is ‘why have I allowed myself to be fat?’ Continue reading
Hello… So I have not been so successful recently on the working out or dieting… but I have been successful in drinking at least 64 oz. of water a day… My water bottle with the 8 oz. marks and the times on it has worked GREAT! So here is a little more about why water is important (especially when dieting) Continue reading
I got an email newsletter from Richard Simmons a few days ago and it was focusing on drinking eight cups of water a day… I’ll admit that I have been very bad at this for a long time… I bring a bottle of water with me to work pretty much every day, but by the time I am leaving I have only consumed 8 oz or so.. and then when I get home I don’t do any better… I do drink my 16 oz of decaf green tea almost every weekday, but not water.
So I decided to figure out a way to get this working… Continue reading
Cece and I had a nice New Years eve with all the kids… dinner out (I was good and had Vegetable Fajitas) and went to the movies (I was not so good and had popcorn) and saw Marley & Me.. If you are a dog person you will sit there crying your eyes out at the end… (I am a dog person) Continue reading
So last Friday was my birthday and I had a really great time… My wife made me (at my request) the Chicken Pomodoro recipe on www.RichardSimmons.com for my birthday dinner and it was awesome! She made roasted vegetables and as a surprise, Fried Zucchini The kids all came over and gave me the BEST present ever! It is a waterproof enclosure for my iPod shuffle with waterproof headphones! Yes.. I can listen to music while swimming! I went the next day to the YMCA and used it… I realized that I don’t like swimming laps because it is boring and I have nothing to focus on except that I am bored… so having the music was GREAT!!! It took a few minutes to get the ear-buds situated so they were fully in my ears, but once I did the sound was really good.. much better than I expected it to be. In the end I had swam more laps that day than I ever have at the Y before! Great birthday all around!
The problem with my birthday weekend was my eating… it was out of control again. No reason other than I just ate.. and ate and ate… so today, I am up over 350 again. And back on the program again. I partied too much and now I have to recover from that by losing the weight.
First, a note: Today I got a comment from my friend Liz giving me kudos for losing 55 pounds… and it hit me (I mean I already knew this since I set it up) that the running weight loss total on here in the ‘About Our Blog’ section shows what I have lost since starting the Lighten Up program, but I lost 14 pounds from my high weight before I started that.. so today I decided to change that running tally to show all the weight from my all-time high… so no, I did not lose 16.5 pounds this week… and thank you Liz! 🙂
Second note: This past Monday when I refocused on my health and weight loss I had to guess at my weight (I entered 351) because I was heavier than our scal can weigh… we have one of those doctors scales with the weights and it only goes to 350 pounds…. and when I got on it was not having it. With the weights all the way over the beam was still pointing up… snd you can push on it and feel how close you are to 350 (not feel how many pounds, but just if you are really close to 350 or not.. how sad is it that I know this) So I guessed 351 which I figured was low. So after a solid week, last night and again this morning I weighted 347.5 pounds… so officially I lost 3.5 pounds since Monday… unofficially I believe it was more like 5-7 pounds (since my starting weight was probably higher than 351)
This week I exercised Monday and Tuesday, then slacked off… but the good news is that I have 3 days left this week right now and I plan to get a workout in at least twice more.
I also learned something last night.. when dieting didn’t go to Sizzler and don’t get popcorn at the movies (like I didn’t already know that) Cece and I went to a screening of ‘Yes Man’ and had dinner before. I figured I would get a small dinner and salad bar (which I did).. Got salmon with broccoli and small serving of rice and about 2/3 of a piece of cheese toast… no baked potato, no butter on the broccoli.. good solid meal… and the salad bar… I even brought in my fat free dressing packets so I wouldn’t use the Blue Cheese Dressing that I love and usually cover my salad with… so I started out at the salad bar very responsibly.. lettuce, mushrooms, carrots.. then came the blue cheese.. I had to have some so I put a small spot on the side of the plate… then around the corner.. imitation Crab salad… a small portion… and then a small serving of spaghetti and sauce… really not too bad… and I should have been done.. but then a second trip with another small portion of Krab salad, some tuna and pasta salad, spaghetti with a meatball this time and a chicken wing… so it was small portions of each, but I really didn’t ‘need’ that second trip…
Then to the movie screening.. when we get to go to these (thank you Joe) they give you each coupons for free soda and popcorn.. and the theater it is at (Archlight) has AWESOME popcorn with real butter… so on the way there I debated just getting a lite lemonade and no popcorn… and of course when I get to the counter I order one popcorn for Cece with extra butter and one for me with a little butter… of course I eat the whole thing… again a poor choice…
So the willpower is a little weak, but I have to look at this as a success. Why? Because 8 months ago I would have gone to Sizzler and had a steak and baked potato w/butter and sour cream and a salad drenched in blue cheeses, and 6-8 fried chicken wings and a large portion of spaghetti with 4-5 meatballs.. and a couple of cheese toasts.. then at the movies at least the amount of popcorn I ate last night (probably more) and perhaps some sour candy of some sort… so while I was not ‘perfect’ last night, it was a huge improvement!
I have been trying a new standard in the mornings… I am frying a single egg (with a little cooking spray) and then putting it in a half a pita… wrap that up in a paper towel (that makes the Pita soften up some) and eat it on the way to work.. then an apple at work and decaf green tea… that is breakfast… then lunch (4 of the 5 days this week) has been a salad with fat free dressing and a pack of 100 calorie snacks. It has been working well and leaving me quite a bit of food available for my dinner.
So this work week has been productive for the company and for my weight. My drive is still focused, I just need to be more vigilant in my choices and work on my willpower.
So the new beginning was today and I must say that I am pleased with my results… I got up and did the normal morning stuff and went to work… kept track of my food on my paper version of the FoodMover (I find it much easier if I just keep the food chart in my pocket notebook), got home and took Jake to the YMCA with me.. did 20 minutes on the eliptical and to change things up I did 20 minutes of fat burn on the exercise bike instead of weight training… was pretty tough, but I am glad that I did it and fell good right now… Took one of the new (December) recipies off RichardSimmons.com, the Chicken Pomodoro recipie, and cooked it… it was awesome… I was tempted to eat more than I had space for on my FoodMover… it was really good… but I was able to put it away and not overeat… I actually have a lot of windows left today.. most my vegetables and a lot of starch… as well as some fruit… I could eat right now, but I am going to have some water instead…. I also only had one Diet Caffine-Free Doctor Pepper (the BEST diet soda in the world right there with Diet Rite Zero) today as I am planning on increasing my water intake and lower my diet drink intake…
After dinner I remembered that tonight was the Richard Simmons chat.. and of course I was too late like always… but I did speak with a bery noce woman in Washington D.C… we shared some stories.. it was nice… felt helpful having someone else talk about what their struggles were.
Then back to work (at home this time) and now I am updtaing the blog as promised… I believe that I did everything I set out to do today! 🙂
It was a good day, just planning tomorrow and remaining focused and calm about the whole thing. I stayed up to late last night watching a yoba/meditation show on PBS.. very interesting and it has rekindled my desire to learn meditation (in my spare time 🙂 ) so in bed early tonight.
So, were there any ‘breakthroughs’ today? Any life changing revelations? Nope.. not at all… but I do feel good and know I will feel better as I get closer to my goal weight. I know that I have a lot of people in my life that are very supportive (you know who you are) and that I will stumble (like I did over the last couple of months) and that it is hard to get back on track, but it can be done.
So tomorrow my plan is to pack more for lunch, come home from work and go to the YMCA and do eliptical and swim. Then have a healthy dinner while staying in the guidlines… and perhaps try to meditate.
Very late so this will be brief…
Tomorrow (12/1/08) is a new start. I have neglected this blog (actaullly avoided it) and my weight loss (which has become a weight gain) for too long. I have every excuse in the world ready, but know they are all just excuses. So tomorrow I begin again… 100% commited to the Lighten Up Diet, exercise, positive thinking and regaining my health and fitness.
I will write more here tomorrow and explain where I am at right now and where I am going.