Take Them As They Come

One of the hardest things about setting a long term goal is that it most often becomes hard to keep sight of, and when we aren't at that end goal fast enough for us, we lose our focus on the goal and our efforts to get there lose their momentum. For me, the key is to not only focus on getting to that goal, but to recognize the mile markers along the way. As I said before, my first big goal is to hit 249 on the scale. I am not there yet obviously, but over the past two days, I have recognized two wonderful mile markers along the way that make me realize that while I am not too very close to that destination, I am seeing some cool points of interest along the way! For example, yesterday, when I put on my XL fleece jacket to go out, it wasn't as tight around my mid-section as it has been being. Or today, when I put on my 36 waist jeans that were on the verge of fitting snugly a week or so ago, I had to go back and find my belt to keep them from falling off me. And back to my sternum obsession, my hand most definitely took a downward slope when I did my sternum check before getting out of bed this morning. So am I at goal? No. But I am most definitely seeing some progress!! UnderArmour hoodie, you are mine and just don't know it yet.

Being Presumptuous

I am one of those people that may have been born a little too late. I still believe in polite society where everyone is more worried about the person next to them than they are themselves. I am a very generous person, and if you ask me for anything ever, if it is within my power to give it to you, it is yours. But my pet peeve in life is presumptuous people. People that just think that they have things coming to them. For example, people that I let out of a parking lot or side street when traffic is just crazy backed up. I make it a point to wave at least once when someone lets me out, and usually I do it twice; once before I pull out, and then I do another wave after I get going in front of them. So it really burns my butt when I let someone out who I saw waiting for sometime while others did not, and then I get no acknowledgement at all from them. They apparently thought, no it isn't like that guy gave me a break, took it upon himself to let me out when others had not, I just had that coming to me. So anyway, back to topic. As you can see, I do not like presumptuous folks. But there is a time for being presumptuous, like when you think you are going to be faced with a challenge that you will not be able to meet. For example, say you and your family are out Black Friday shopping, and you just know that before you can do anything about it, there will be a food stop before you can ever get home to known calorie values. Now, it is easy to assume that you will probably fail the test of eating healthy, and give up the idea that you can leave some food on the tray or plate or whatever. Ooooooor, you can become presumptuous as all get out, and trust and believe that no, in fact the above described scenario is not a foregone conclusion, but rather the foregone conclusion is that you will make a great food choice, you will track the calories, and you will make it a point to leave half the waffle fries on the tray (all this being purely hypothetical of course). Yes sir, if you were to be one of them presumptuous people, I believe that would just about the best time to do it.

Rewards

I am a little retarded, but I am ok with it. I weighed in at 266.6 when I set off to get back on the path. I wrote that on a dry erase board that hangs in the entry way to my bedroom. That number is at the top, my first big goal of 249 is at the bottom. Written next to the 249 is two words. UnderArmour Hoodie. That is my reward for getting to 249 lbs. Guess what. I am obsessed with it. I think about the hoodie multiple times a day. I envision me wearing it while I am walking. It is my life right now. I live to wear that hoodie. Guess what I don't obsess about now? Food.

How did I ever forget how great this feeling is?

So today I am full of energy! I have been quickly getting my hyperness back online and it feels great! I remember when I was at my thinnest always being in go mode. one of the lamentations I have had over the past few months is how willing I am to come home, find my recliner, and wear it out! I woke up this morning and was not exactly all smiles, but after I got my first cup of coffee in me, I was suddenly a ball of energy that couldn't sit down for anything!! That is awesome because I have that energy, but not so awesome in that I needed to do homework today. Not looking too good for that right now... haha. So after I finished cup #2, I sprang into action. I got all the trash out, got the recycle loaded in my truck and ready to be taken to the drop off. I made a to do list of stuff I needed to for sure get done today and stuff that Kathy had asked me to do for sure today. So while I was waiting for the bank to open, since it was a pivot point of my morning plans not at the house, I decided to go ahead and get the leaves for the table down and inserted for tomorrow. After that, it was late enough for me to go do my banking through the drive through. I finished that, took the cans to sell, the recycle to drop off, and then headed home. I have a plan for Turkey day break. I am doing a 5k walk a day for three days in a row. The day before, the day of, and the day after. I got home and figured out my day and realized I had better go ahead and do the day before 5k ASAP so that I didn't get caught up and not do it. So off I headed. I forgot how great it is to just get out and move and think for a whole hour!! So when I finished that up, I hit a quick fruit and lunchmeat snack to help me recover from a 3 mile walk, and then decided it was time to fix the chairs. Now a week ago I would have been wiped out and channel surfing would have been the order for the remainder of the day. I actually spent two hours working on my chairs getting them fixed right this time. all that to say this. Why did I ever let my determination and vigor go to the way side and get my stupid self overweight and underexercised yet again? How could I have ever forgotten how crappy that felt and how great the energetic Shane felt? Falling back to my hindsight post, never again will I ever lose that sight!! I will keep moving and eating better for the remainder of my life!!

The Sternum

I am a dork and I will freely admit it. I have lots of quirks. One of which is my obsession with my sternum. When I was working at getting to the mountaintop, I had a couple of "progress tests" I did all the time. First was when I woke up, I would place my hand on my sternum, and then move my hand down to my belly, checking for the "slope". In the beginning the "slope" was up from the sternum. However as I progressed, the hand started going "downhill". It was exciting when the sternum drop off became a cliff!! I also remember many family members expressing concern about the lump that was my sternum when I would hug them. They had gotten so used to my belly being the point of contact that the lump bothered them I guess! I even could feel it plainly and easily standing up just by quick touch. ONe of the thing I used to do while climbing back up the scales was to feel my sternum. I had rationalized myself into believing as long as it was still where could touch it, I was not putting on too much weight, right? Wrong. so added to the goal list, make friends with my sternum once again. get him out of that hidey hole and poking my relatives once again!!

I require goals

A great deal of soul searching and deep thought have gone into my analysis of how I fell from what I considered the mountain top. I think it is seriously as simple as I met all my goals without setting up concrete and solid new goals. I require goals for me to stay focused and centered. Often times when I was working out or running or tracking calories, I had an end goal in mind. For example, each weigh in, I would set my sights on the next number I wanted to see come up on the scale. Each run, I would set a new goal for time or distance to reach by X date. Each time I logged calories, I set my sights on keeping that number under X amount for the day. One of my big grand picture goals was to get below 200 pounds. I can recall the day I did that and the pride and joy that I felt. I beamed for days after that! But after that goal was met, I never set a new one. In fact, that may have actually been the unraveling point for me. I had put a lot of energy and effort into getting there, and quite frankly, I was a little tired from all the effort. So that was when I made the conscious effort to be "intuitive" about my eating and exercising. Worst. Choice. Ever. So in hindsight and in forward sight I have decided that goals goals goals is what I require to get to where I want AND to stay there. So here is my first list of goals to get me going. I write them down to make them real rather than abstract: 1. I love running. I want to run, whatever distance or speed, every day or at minimum 5 days a week. right now I am limited to 1/2 a mile which is the distance around my block if I am on the road, or I can run a mile straight on a no incline treadmill. I want the numbers to increase each week, as in better time, speed and distance than I ran last Friday. 2. Daily calorie goal is set at 2000, but actually aiming for more in the 1700-1800 area. 3. My first weight goal is to get out of the 260's ASAP. I have a dry erase board that has my 266.4 lbs written at the top right now and my actual big picture first goal of 249 lbs. written at the bottom. I intend to weigh on Fridays and Mondays. I hope to be down at least 1 pound by Friday.

Hindsight is 20/20

We all have done it. Taken a course of action, and after all was said and done, we wish we had known X while we were doing it, wish we had done X instead of Y, etc etc. Take for example, oh I don't know, my recent weight loss success followed by my following weight gain failure. I am no statistician, but I would bet money that the rate of recidivism in weight loss success is pretty big. Hindsight, while usually a bane of our existence, in these instances is an integral tool in picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, taking the gained knowledge, and moving forward. I now know that I can't just stop counting calories, and slack off on my exercise. It is not the formula for successful weight loss and maintenance. I am required to remain vigilant, if not hyper-vigilant, for the rest of my born days. I have no stop sign. It is s wide open road that requires me to keep my eyes open and look for bumps in the road, oncoming traffic, and other highway dangers. I didn't know that before, but now I do. Hindsight, I may not like where I am now, but with your help, I can get the "recalculating" prompt on my GPS, and not miss my turns anymore.