Where Does The Common Sense Go?

If you are reading this, the odds are you, like me, are trying to effect a life style change. You are unhappy with your current weight and physical fitness. It also stands to reason that if you are in this subset of the blogging world, you are at least average, if not above average intelligence and looking for not only support, but to broaden your knowledge of what works and doesn't work by gleaning ideas from your peers. So to recap, we are smart but overweight/out of shape folks here.

Despite what all the fad diets and special drinks/food/supplements would have you believe, I think we all know that weight loss is by far the simplest math equation possible. Eat less calories + burn more calories= burn off excess fat/build lean muscle. Seriously, how much easier can it get? But how many times have we sat around, hacked off because we just upsized our shirt size, or got winded tying our shoes, but continued to stare at a tv/ipad/video game screen for hours? The most activity we got was getting up to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. How many times have we had something delicious to eat, and though we aren't hungry, we go get more? Because it was just that good. How many times have we had an hour to burn before some event, and made the decision that the only viable option was to stop for some food somewhere? All the while, our self loathing brewing beneath the surface.

I say all this, because this morning, I made me a sausage patty for breakfast. My wife used to make fun of me because I made hamburger sized sausage patties. I have managed to downsize them quite a bit in the past couple of months. But anyway, after I finished my sausage patty this morning, I thought man that was good! I SHOULD COOK ME ANOTHER! Now it is important to note that after eating, I wasn't hungry, not in the least. I just WANTED another couple hundred calories that would serve no purpose but to up my calorie count for the day! Granted, it was a fleeting thought, and I never acted on it because my common sense took over. I want to be thinner, and I won't get there by eating seconds when I am not even hungry!

But the question stands, when we are making terrible choices after deciding we are tired of being overweight and out of shape, where does our common sense go? How do we reason that sitting here rather than cleaning the house or doing yard work is the best course of action? How do we rationalize that I am not happy with where I am physically, but I will still have that second slice of cake or 5th piece of pizza when we know the math doesn't add up to what we state our goal is? Where does the common sense go?

The Bow on Top

I have to admit, overall it has been a pretty great week. I talked in my last post about the things I have noticed that weren't necessarily any of my goals, but were sign posts. Since that post I have added a couple of things, one of which I am calling the bow on top of the present.

First, I have had a hectic week. This go around, both divisions of the circuit court are having their pre-trial hearings within 3 days of each other. And in division 2, we didn't have pre-trials until yesterday and trial week is next week, meaning that we weren't going to find out if we had trials next week until yesterday. As luck would have it, it looks like I have a trial on Thursday. But I digress. So anyway, preparing for court left me a bit haggard this week. And Thursday was one of those days I really needed a workout. I was not able to get one at lunch like I usually do and that had me worried. I am on a pretty good streak and didn't want to start the downfall. Good news is, unlike any other time, I decided that since i was not able to get to the gym at lunch, I was going to walk that night. AND I DID!! Not only did I walk that night, I went a half mile further in that walk than I have been going recently!!

The one of the goals I have not met so far is the goal shirt. I am so close, but I am not calling it yet. BUT.... I have a pea coat that has both a zipper, then a row of buttons I can button up to make sure the wind doesn't get in. Recently I have declined to use the zipper because it would go, but it was a bit uncomfortable on my belly to zip it up. Friday, I zipped it up, and while it isn't all the way comfortable yet, it was considerably closer to being comfortable!!

Now all that is great, but today, the bow on top of the present came along. I decided that weigh day would be Saturday here while back and so today I got on the scales first thing this morning. I was down 2 pounds from last week!!! I was completely shocked to see that number because I had two days in a row where I struggled to keep the calorie count for the day below 2,000. It goes to show that hard work pays off! I now have a second wind that will help fight off tough days for the next couple of weeks. After weigh in this morning, I just keep thinking "get to 269, get to 269" I bet I can get there by mid February!!

The ABCs of Life Style Change= Always Be Conscious

I am starting to see some pretty decent benefits of having been "on" for the past month, give or take. Now I say that to say this. One of those benefits does not happen to be any scale victory, nor have I managed to get into my next goal shirt as of this writing. That COULD lead me to some moments of frustration and possibly to a "why bother?" attitude. But it hasn't. And that is because I have a talent for seeing little improvements and recognizing them for the blessings they are. That is because I am practice the Always Be Conscious method of Life Style Change. It applies to all sorts of things, but the most useful one to me is recognizing that there is more to this than what the scale says or the tag of my shirt says.

Take for example my exploits at the gym. I have been doing three different forms of cardio, rotating them each visit. I do the arc trainer (think eliptical but a little harder), the stationary bike, and then I have taken to jogging in interval training on the treadmill. I run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes for 1/2 hour. Since I started working out and eating better, I have gone from jogging at 4 mph on the treadmill to 4.7 mph on the jogging intervals. On the arc trainer, I moved up a level on the program I am using, and I can do the whole half hour at speed, rather than slowing down for a little bit on occasions. And on the bike, I am up 2 levels on the program I have been using. Add to that that I have gone up in weight on every single strength training exercise I do and I am having a heck of a lot of stuff to be thankful for! But I have to be conscious of those things as being just as good as lbs or XLs, and they are all sign posts on the road to my goals.

I also have been conscious of my success in the eating realm. And I credit that to my return to the legal pad! I am once again logging my calories on a legal pad. This helps me stay conscious of how much I have eaten today, and more importantly, I can look back at the days prior to today and see how well I have been doing!

The last thing I use to keep my conscious on track is my whiteboard. It is in the entry way of my bedroom, and it is immediately across from the restroom door. I see it first thing when I wake up each morning, and it reminds me that I am on this journey first thing in the morning, helping me get the right mindset before i have a chance to start thinking about what all I have to do today.

The Hunger Struggle Redux

One of the things I hated about my last journey is that while I was very good at being strict with my calorie counts, and I set my limit at 1800 a day. Back then I did not do net calories, I did gross calories. So my thought for this time around was I will go ahead and do net calories. I take off my exercise calories, then I allow myself to get to 2,000 calories net a day. The reason was I was CONSTANTLY hungry before. I don't mean like a nagging kind of discomfort hungry, I mean I was so starving, it felt like I hadn't eaten in days! So for the past 2-3 weeks, I have been doing a good job keeping myself in the calorie budget, and up until a couple of days ago, I wasn't having the hunger problems. Now, after 2-3 weeks of consistent dieting and exercise, the starving is coming back. I am typing this right now having had 3 scrambled eggs at 5:30 a.m., a cup of cereal with 1% milk, and a handful of almonds. My calorie count is 510 at 10:00 a.m. I feel like I haven't eaten since supper last night!

Does anybody else have this problem? My thinking is I may have to add some calories to my diet, but that seems like a counter-intuitive action. Thoughts?

There Is Always That One Thing, Right?

First off, let me say that overall, I am happy with the direction my health and fitness are trending, and I feel overall I am successful. However, there always has to be that one thing that nags you, that you can't help but think "I really have to figure THIS out or there will be problems later." I am absolutely keeping within my calorie goal each day. The problem is, I am worried about the fact that I am only at 1,000 net calories after supper, and so to get my calorie count up, I am eating at night. Make no mistake, it is healthy foods, but as I have chronicled and whined about over the years, it is my night time eating that gets me in trouble most often.

At this point, I am not sure whether to go ahead and address this and try to move more calories to earlier in the day, or if I am just being a worry wart. I guess the real problem is that I am not sure how I would move the calories around. My day is front end loaded, so that is pretty much the reason I get fewer calories during the daytime. I have a good breakfast every morning, a good snack sometime mid-morning, and then a small lunch after the gym at lunch. Kathy has been cooking healthy suppers and so the calorie count on those has been around 500 lately. Like I said, after I take my workout calories off the calories I have had throughout the day, I am pretty low in the calorie count. So my "I can talk myself into anything" self says I NEED to get the count up because if I don't eat enough, then my metabolism will slow down.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Day #10 of Being Intentional

I talked about my plan to diet 10 days at a time last post. I am currently on Day 10 of the first rotation. In those 10 days, I have been INTENTIONAL in my efforts. I wake each day and come up with a plan, rather than a "play it by ear" strategy. I have planned a daily calorie limit, I have decided to work out or not, and what workout I would do that day. I have tracked my calories all day every day. I have associated Bible verses with my efforts and memorized them as I headed into each day. And I have to admit, I have come away from the last 10 days with some very positive things.

1. I don't know what it was that wore me out about tracking calories last time. I find it very satisfying to see the numbers and know that I have done a good job today. Another unexpected realization I had was that when I was not really thinking about calorie counts, I was always thinking I ate way too many calories. Now that I am putting numbers to paper, I see that I was eating more calories that I should have maybe, but not as overeating as I thought. I assumed I was getting like 4-5,000 calories a day. I was probably really only getting 2500 to 3000 a day. Still too much to lose weight for my activity level, but not as much as I thought.

2. I have always known this, but I had a reawakening to the realization that when I work out, I make big gains quickly. Example, day 1 I did a workout that included doing pull ups with an assist band. I think i did like 3 pullups one set, 3 the next, and 1 the last set. Yesterday, I did 5, 4, then 3 pull ups!! I also have been gaining quickly in all of the cardio workouts I do. My stamina and leg strength have been markedly better each day.

3. I have dedicated myself to drinking lots more water and little to no diet soda. I have to be honest, I braced myself for a couple of days of being dead tired, but the reality is I never had that happen. I was reading some material after I started to research why that would be. I guess being dehydrated has a lot of negative side effects, sluggishness being one. Once I became property hydrated, I guess my body became a more efficient machine? Plus I got extra exercise going to the bathroom a lot!!

4. When my blood sugar isn't high, I am a stuff accomplishing machine!! Today, I have cleaned up my desk and organized what didn't get thrown away. I cleaned off the catch all kitchen table, and am fixing to head to the gym for a Saturday workout!

5. I like to be sore. I used to hate it. But let's think about this for a second. We all want to be more active as part of our fantasy. That involves us using our muscles. Well being sore means two things. You have muscles, and you USED THEM!! Being sore for an extended amount of time means that you have kept working out and using them!! You were more active and you have proof!!

Here's to the next 10 days!!

What Do You Do Well?

No matter who you are, there is something that you do well, in at least one aspect of your life if not many aspects of your life. For example, I have the ability to see beyond the here and now when I am on a journey to get somewhere. All the years I spent in school, it would have been very easy to make the excuses, like I am too old, I can't be a husband, father, full time employee and a full time student. What I chose to do instead was to steel my jaw, and I would get my degree plan out every couple of weeks and note all the check marks I had made when I completed the courses. Just seeing that I was making progress helped me see the bigger picture; that one day I would have them all checked off. Along the same vein, I am able to produce a second wind in those journeys because I always without fail divide any task into two halves. I work my butt off in the first half to get to the halfway point, then I rejoice in my second wind while working my butt of in the second half, because I am over halfway done!

With that in mind, I am starting anew in my weight loss journey. And using the what do I do well question led me to come up with a plan to get me going, keeping in mind that one of my other talents is adapt and overcome when plan A isn't going as well as hoped. I am good at making plans that have structure and definitiveness. That is why I was so successful in my last bid to lose weight. I took time each morning to say "today, I do X." So each morning, or even the night before, I am going to plan for the next day. INcluding what exercise activity I am going to do, and what my calorie goal will be for that day.

I am also going to use visual aids (think degree plan example above) this time, though very basic. I have a yellow legal tablet that is the master copy of my daily calorie count, listing all my food and its caloric value with a tally at the end. I have a white dry erase board that I am filling out each day. Which leads me to the next aspect of my plan. I am now going to be dieting in 10 day increments. See above my I can do anything to half way, and get a second wind at the halfway point. I am on day 5 of the current block of dieting days, and as promised, I am excited to work my butt off being successful for the second half of the stint. My definitive goal is to always stay under 2,000 net calories for the day. At the end of the day, after my evening snack, I tally up my calorie count and write it on the board for that day, so that when I start the next day's board, I can see that I succeeded the day before, and it motivates me for the rest of the day.

That is pretty much it for now. I may add some stuff and I may subtract some stuff along the way, but at least I am being INTENTIONAL in my weight loss effort, rather than ABSTRACT.