Why can't all days be that easy?

That title says it all. If all days were as easy as yesterday was, this whole lifestyle change would be a cakewalk. I kept busy all day and had not one iota of stress. usually the busy part isn't a problem, it is the stress part! haha! I got up at 5 and was on the go all day. Kathy and I got home around 9 and were sacked out shortly after! No time for "hmmm, a little snack this evening wouldn't hurt". Again, if only all days were that easy! ADDENDUM: So after I typed the above blog, I went out to get my walk in. I got that itch again. I had to run! Now make no mistake, it was not a long or fast run, but it was a run. I guesstimate it was about .6 miles, but it is .6 more than I ran yesterday!!

The Day of Reckoning

So I don't know if you had noticed, but in the last few posts, I had not posted my weight. I had done so on purpose. I wanted to get into my groove before finding out the depressing news of how much had I actually gained. I did finally weigh this morning. and here is the sad sad news. (stole the idea from you Jack, in case you are reading and say hey!)

So I am now at my starting point, that by which progress will be measured. And so here is my first goal. I want to get to 245. Not putting a definite time line on that, but that is my first goal. I hate not putting a time on it, but I still think my race to lose weight is what led to my failure in keeping the weight off. so I am going to do this deliberately this time so that hopefully, my body and mind will accept the changes. Hope everyone has a great day and thanks for stopping by. it means the world to me!

That Fine Line

I have thought about it and thought about it. How did I get so far along in a weight loss journey, get below 200 pounds and then let that slip away? Now I do eat better than I used to, so that is the positive that I can take from this, but still. So here is what I have come up with. I would appreciate some thoughts on this. I lost 100 pounds in roughly 8 months, give or take. I have to wonder.... did I do it too fast? Once I stopped being 1500 calories strict and just ate intuitively, did my body see the chance to put back on weight that was taken off really fast as an emergency measure? I mean when I stopped tracking, I still was not eating like crazy, I still had not began to feel the stress of laws school and was not eating poorly. but within no time, I had put on 14 lbs, then 20. if I had been smart, I would have fought back then. But the motivation had left me. and then it got out of hand. So here I am. I am trying to put together a new plan. I want to take off more like 1 pound a week instead of like 2-3. here is the problem. I am a results now kind of guy. I can't go slow, I go all the way when I do something. so I may get two benefits from this go around. A more sustainable weight loss and a lesson in patience. which is going to be pretty important in my new line of work. so here it is. instead of 1500 calories a day, it will be 2200 a day, and instead of two sessions of cardio a day, I do one (walking now, but running later) added in with some weight training since I have a gym membership now! Ok, that felt good. felt real good. Here I go!!

Renew your mind daily

I have a new tool in the toolbox that I intend on using a lot in this new journey. I have begun to attend church regularly and my faith in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit have blossomed. I am by no means well settled into my walk with Christ, but I am well under way. I read the Bible each morning now (not to say that I don't miss a day here or there, but it is a priority to read it more mornings than I do not) and I am not good at quoting book, chapter and verse, but I do remember the gist of scriptures pretty regularly, and one of my favorite ones can be applied to just about all facets of life, not just your walk in faith. "Do not conform to the ways of this world. But renew your ind daily so that you may know God's will- his good, pleasing and perfect will". What I get from this, take a few minutes each day, first thing, and give God your first and best. But after that, you can set your mind up for the day. For example, I did my reading plan this morning and then when I was done meditating on the scriptures, I took the next few minutes to meditate on my goals for the day. I wanted to get a walk in this morning (did it Kenz!) and then I want to periodically throughout today stop and think about how food controls me so much and how that is not natural. I have a mindset that food has the power in our relationship. If it is there and available, I can't just not eat it, I am resigned immediately to "well here goes failure". I have to each day renew my mind that this is not a given, it is not a constant. It is up to me to fix that attitude, but I must give my resolve its due diligence each day. And by piggy backing that on to my spiritual renewal each day, I know God will help me in doing so. And to Carrie, Suzy, Mary and Michele, thanks for the comments yesterday. It is good to know that I have folks watching me and rooting for me!

I fought the good fight, but I did not finish the race......

So I am not sure who all I know still does the weight loss blogging thing. I have been gone for quite some time now. I miss the camaraderie, but my life just got busy and blogging everyday got lost in it. Being a first year law student was a bit harder than I thought it would be. But I am not here to make excuses, I am not here to rationalize. I lost over 100 pounds, and now I am being a huge non-fighter, and it is starting to creep back on me. I could just cave in. I could just call it good until after law school is over and then get back after the weight loss again. But that isn't me. I got there once, and I can get there again. I just need to come up with a better plan for staying there. I think one of the elements I am missing, one of the reasons I fell off the "yeah I am losing weight and doing great things with my health!!!" wagon is that I quit dealing with it in black and white. I quit putting physical form to it, and began to fight the fight only in my mind again. and we all know that when the mind gets the power, the rationalization begins. So I need to get back to writing it out, making it real putting real goals up, rather than thinking up new goals and never getting any further than that. So even if not one of the many wonderful people I met along the way in my wonderful weight loss journey of a year or so ago are still around, and even if not one person ever reads this blog again..... I need this blog. I need this outlet. I need to put my feelings in to black and white, my goals and wins and even my losses need to stop being so abstract, and take form. An abstract thought gets lost very easily, but a written goal is there to remind you, it has real power. I don't have a plan of attack yet, but it will be at least somewhat similar to the last one, but I am going to have to come up with a strategy for weight loss, AND a strategy for weight loss maintenance this time. Goal #1 for me is to start making this blog a priority once again. as in each day, I take at least 10 minutes to post about plans, wins and losses, and what ever I am feeling that day about my weight loss journey v2.0. And if any of my wonderful weight loss blog friends are still around, howdy and how are ya'll doing?

Don't even think about it!

An epiphany hit me on the treadmill today. The reason for the thought that brought on the epiphany is that I went off my beaten path yesterday. I was feeling poorly healthwise, just didn't have any getty-up-go on me. I had been well on plan for the three days prior and this week I have stepped up my working out since I am in week 3. I started thinking maybe I am just running low on fuel, since burning fat is not an efficient process. Maybe I just didn't have enough to keep me going. So I went ahead and took the reins off for lunch and had a half dozen tacos. Well that is pretty much always a terrible idea for me, letting go that it. I can rationalize anything like I said a few days ago. well after that I did start feeling a bit more energetic, so then I had some cereal too and then I really perked up. Finally, at Life Group last night, I just went with the flow and had a couple of plates AND some pie!

I know for sure that all of ya'll will get this next line. So since I screwed up the plan last night, and came to my senses this morning, my first thought was "ok, let's counter yesterday's idiocy with some under eating today! That should even things out! Makes sense right? Wroooooong!! So as I am running and trying to keep myself from thinking about how tired I am, it dawns on me. It is all about habits and routines. If I want to eat consistently well, then I need to eat consistently period. So now if you decided to that retribution for yesterday's sins is in order for today, not only have you not stuck to the good eating habits and routines for one day, now you have gone off habit and routine for two days for trying to under eat to counter the over eating! Duuuuuur! Not only that, if you fail to stick to that plan for the day, you have set yourself up for two days of failure in a row, and a huge hit to your resolve is sure to follow.

So although yesterday was not disaster, it was a step off the path for me. But, if the path is where I want to be, my job is to practice being on the path each day. So although my instinct is to try to eat less today to even out, I am going to stick to my guns and eat on plan, putting yesterday's transgression back in the box for yesterday. Each 24 hour cycle is separate from each other. Don't worry about yesterday, it happened. Work on today. Make it a good day. Make that habit and routine stick TODAY. String enough of those good days together and you can't help but have success! But don't try to go retroactive on any yesterday, ever.

So I am back to concentrating on my goals for TODAY. Yesterday is powerless over me. Today, I will succeed.

Success!

Well if today is any measure, the steps I talked about yesterday to make sure I am not going to fall into rationalization mode are going to be successful. The only one I failed on was getting something to eat before I went to work out this morning. I even got up late and still made it to the gym in my window! Lauren played a big part in the success of the morning. She was willing to work with me and get her hind end up before I left. And I stopped after my workout and got us a garage door clicker, and have already programmed it to work with our garage door opener! God is good, amen! I know it is my job to do the stuff, but He sure helps motivate me when I am lacking in ability or slacking in general!

I am also very thankful for my LiveStrong food tracking app on my iPod. I used to write everything down manually and had to Google my food calories all day. This app lets me search all that stuff out and track it in a convenient one stop shop. It also takes the math function out of it, telling me how many calories I have left for the day. I also like the fact I can track my activity for the day and see about how many calories I burned. My big thing is to create a calorie deficit every 24 hour cycle. This app makes it so much easier to handle all the information for doing that in one fell swoop!

How are ya'll using technology to achieve your goals?