Day 24 - The Gym Rat

This morning I stepped on the scale to see that I gained one pound making my current weight 206 pounds. I am not concerned about just one pound because I like the overall downward trend I am experiencing. After 24 days I am losing .375 pounds each day, on average. That is just over 1/3rd of a pound daily. I can live with any weight loss. That also means I am trending towards losing 2.625 pounds a week! It is a slow weight loss and hard work but I have decided to make this new “way of life”, my actual way of life.

Yesterday I made it to the gym for my mid-day workout break and I saw something that strikes me as strange. I see it almost everyday. So today I want to talk about it. I get on the treadmill and I work at the pace required to get to the proper pace for my heart rate. In order for me to achieve the proper rate for my heart, I have to work rather hard. I find myself breathing heavy, so heavy I could not possibly hold a conversation with the person next to me. The most I could say to someone is, “Hi”.

Please don’t get me wrong, but there were two women next to me, on treadmills, that talked to each other constantly through my workout. All I know is that if I am able to hold a conversation, I am not getting the workout that I need. It is easy for me, then, to assume that they cannot be getting a “workout” at that pace. So why do they do it? I’m sure there is some benefit to walking on the treadmill for an hour but why not stroll through a park instead of in a gym?

My point is this, if you have determined to lose weight, exercise is a must. But to go further, you must work at it. Be dedicated and work hard. Walk in the park with your friends and have fun while you get some exercise but don’t forget to find some dedicated time for a workout that seems hard.

I want to lose weight, so I work hard. If you are overweight, I want you to lose weight too. Get committed and work hard when you need to and have fun when you can.

I close today with some fun quotes I found, hope you like them!

“I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.” ~Marsha Doble

“If your dog is fat, you're not getting enough exercise.” ~Author Unknown

"Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork. ~English Proverb

"A diet is the penalty we pay for exceeding the feed limit." ~Author Unknown

"More die in the United States of too much food than of too little." ~John Kenneth Galbraith

"The cardiologist's diet: If it tastes good, spit it out." ~Author Unknown

Day 23 - Almost 20 Diet Tips

As I mentioned in the last posting, I have a guest post today. But before we get to that I will give you my daily update, which is the whole reason for this blog. I managed to get to the gym last night instead of going during the day. I left work and got home to greet my wife as she arrived home and her first announcement was that she was going to make me dinner. That may not sound strange to you but we usually make our own means and eat them together. My only concern was to eat fast and get to the gym while I still felt like it! So after an hour of dinner preparation and a great meal, the thought did cross my mind that maybe I could pass on the gym. However, it was just a fleeting thought and I did manage to break the gravitational pull of the couch and I got out the door.

This morning I weighed 205 pounds for a loss of 2 over the day before. That is a milestone for me... I have lost a total of 10 pounds to date in 23 days. Now about our guest post...

I have a very close friend, who wishes to remain nameless, that agreed to put together a list of tips that helped her lose a significant amount of weight years ago and kept it off. I have witnessed her living by these tips and she looks marvelous!

1. Don’t let yourself get hungry. If you are hungry, you will be tempted to eat something you will regret later. Always keep healthful, low-fat munchies with you. In your purse, desk drawer and glove compartment.


2. Plan ahead. If you know you will be out shopping all day, or on a long drive, take your health snacks/meals with you! Buy a thermal food bag if you need your foods cold/warm.


3. Snack between meals. There is nothing wrong with snacking as long as it is healthful. With healthful snacks, you will not be as hungry for your main meal and will be less apt to eat too much.


4. Learn what healthful snack foods you like and keep them with you. Don’t carry carrot sticks with you for later if you really don’t like them. You will only end up eating the carrot sticks AND still crave the junk food.


5. Read “ingredients.” You need to read more than the label on the front. The front label is merely a sales tool so read the ingredients. Stay away from hydrogenated oils, coconut oil, salt, white sugars, white rice, and white flour.


6. Don’t eat junk food; eat real food. If you eat “junk food” with white sugars, white flour, preservatives, other “junk ingredients,” the food item will not satisfy you. You will be hungry again very soon. Junk foods have been proven to give you the munchies and cause you to crave MORE junk food! Eating healthful foods causes you to crave healthful foods.


7. Eat “natural” foods. Purchase foods that are as close to “natural” as you can get them. Natural foods satisfy hunger and the body will process the food and not store it as fat. If you eat junk food, the body will not know how to process it, so will store it as fat. Nuts – with no oils and salt - whole wheat breads, whole grain rice, dried/fresh fruits are great sources of vitamins and very filling.


8. Eliminate milk products from your diet. Milk is very important when we are growing, but once we are adults, we don’t need it. Yes, we still need calcium, but it can be taken in vitamin form. (I was told, just this week by my doctor, to get more calcium and Vitamin D in a pill form!) Milk products - cheese, butter, ice cream, and milk - all very fattening! Try to find a substitute for the milk on your hot and cold cereals - soy/almond, rice milk are great. If you need real milk, drink fat free milk, but it is not as filling as the other milks listed above.


9. Only take one bite. If you MUST eat junk food, smell it, think about how it will look on your hips and make you feel afterwards. If you still want to eat it, smell it, savor it and take ONE bite and throw away the rest…quickly. Why temp yourself?


10. Don’t buy foods you love!! You may eat more than you intended. I LOVE granola, and you can buy pretty healthful granola nowadays, but I don’t buy it because I will eat the entire box in ONE sitting.


11. Know yourself. Know your habits, likes and dislikes so you can create a “healthful” environment for you and surround yourself with as little temptations as possible.


12. Ignore what magazines and advertisements state. Healthy low calorie, fat free snacks, power bars, cookies, cakes, just make you crave more junk food. It’s not food. Frozen diet meals, including “Lean Cuisines” are not healthful either. They are loaded with salt, preservatives, white rice, and unhealthful oils… ingredients that will only cause you to be hungry soon.


13. Don’t eat late at night. I don’t eat after 7:00 pm. I’ve heard some people don’t eat after 5:00 pm. Otherwise, it will not digest well and will be stored as fat.


14. Eat breakfast! Even if it is only one slice of bread or a piece of fruit. Eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism, which helps you lose weight.


15. Don’t tell people you are “on a diet.” They will probably just tell you, you don’t need to lose weight and continue to offer you fattening foods. Tell them you are trying to eat a more “healthful diet and not eat junk food.” They will probably ask you more about your new diet and want to join you!


16. Weigh yourself often! Weigh yourself at least once a day, preferable in the morning before you eat. This will give you an idea of how your diet and exercise worked the day before, so you can plan your day before it starts. Statistical, if you weigh yourself often, you will lose weight.


17. Get enough sleep. If you do not get enough sleep your insulin glands are off for the day and one will have the munchies ALL day... this is a proven fact and I know it from experience.

Day 22 - A Week Out of the Ordinary

Once again I am apologizing for missing my daily posting. It is truly my quest to post everyday but I just can’t pull it off consistently. So if you are tracking my progress daily I hope you didn’t wander off to some other weight loss blogging dude.

As I push forward to the slimmer me I notice an occasional detour in my journey. This last week I found myself in a training situation for my day job that monopolized my time. Due to the nature of the class, I found myself spending time preparing my homework for each day, as well as acting as the host for the class. On top of those duties, I also played host to the consultant (instructor) and a big-wig from our corporate offices during the off-hours.

The challenges for my weight loss were huge. First, the hours required to pull the event together coupled with entertaining, and homework, I was unable to exercise at all for five days. The week before I began to feel like my workout was part of my routine and I didn’t want to do without it. Now after five days without the workout, I feel like I need a kick in the pants to get going again. Secondly, I couldn’t control my diet very well. The “student body” of this class is from all over the country we thought it would be fun to have dinner together as a class. I chose the best meal possible for me but I’m sure I ate more than I should have, and I didn’t eat it all. Also, every day of the class, lunch was provided so I did not have my usual diet for lunch either.

But that’s not all! My wife and I had made plans long ago to attend a marriage seminar in our city, which just happened to fall on the week-end after the previously mentioned training week. So, Friday night we started the marriage seminar that ran through Sunday afternoon. Plus, we threw in a romantic dinner Saturday evening.

I did manage to make it home Sunday afternoon to make it to my volleyball game. So after five days of no meaningful exercise I got in an hour of volleyball.

Then this morning I took my shower and stepped on the scale, (a new one by the way), and it read 207 pounds. That is a net loss of two pounds for the days I could NOT exercise, plus a five pound loss over last week.

With that weight loss, I find it much easier to get back to the gym today. I am not able to have the mid-day workout but I am dedicated to go home, eat dinner, and head out to the gym for the evening.

Tomorrow I have a guest posting of sorts, which you won’t want to miss. I have a very close friend who lost a significant amount of weight years ago and KEPT it off! Lots of people lose weight but few keep it off. She is going to share her personal dieting tips. Don’t miss it!

Day 15 – Tough Weekend

I apologize for not posting over the weekend but it was a difficult weekend. After my disastrous weight gain on Friday (See Day twelve – Big Surprise) I decided I needed to workout harder over the weekend. The problem was that I knew I only had time on Saturday, not Sunday.

I knew this would probably be a tough weekend anyway because this was Easter Sunday and there is a big family dinner to go to. So not only do I only have one day of the weekend to workout, I had a big meal looming. So Saturday I got a great start to the day by having my usual breakfast and running off to the gym. I ran on the treadmill for my traditional 30 minutes then I did something I haven’t done before. Since my wife was working all day I had no need to rush home so I spent more time at the gym. I have a rotation of weight machines I go through after the treadmill. However, the list is broken into two groups: Day One and Day Two. After the treadmill I usually perform either Day One’s list of weight training or Day Two’s list. But Saturday I had plenty of time and energy coupled with the motivation from Friday’s disastrous weight gain to actually go through both Day One and Day Two’s weight training. I felt good and was happy I did it. The rest of the day was filled with some other work and errands.

Later that day when my wife got off work we determined we needed to perform our normal Sunday Trader Joe’s shopping because of our anticipated busy schedule on Easter. When our shopping was done I decided that I felt pretty good so I asked her to drive home and I would meet here there. So I ran nearly the entire 2.5 miles home. I’m glad I did it too! Plus I slept really well that night.

Sunday morning was crazy for me. I normally get up at 6:30 a.m. and get the gym done before church but not this Sunday! My wife had been heading up the Easter Egg Hunt at the church which is next door to a park. I was the guy chosen to get to the park early enough (6:45) to stake out the hunt areas. So there went my normal workout time. Also we attended church as normal. From there we traveled 2+ hours to the family dinner. The most exercise I got for the day was lifting heavy fork loads to my mouth. Then repeat for uncounted repetitions… Of course Dinner wasn’t served until 4 o’clock so there was the obligatory grazing of condiments. I don’t think I overate at the meal but I wonder about the total effect of the day with no exercise; Dinner with appetizers; driving 6 hours.

This morning I got my answer to the net loss/gain question. I am at 212 for a gain of one pound over Friday’s 211. I will continue to push forward.

Day Twelve – Big Surprise

This morning I got on the scale as usual only to get a huge shock. I gained 5 pounds in one day! I would rather have an actual electrical shock than this! It looks like I will be using more than my fair share of exclamation points in my posting today!! I want to throw the scale out the window but instead I will punish it by standing on it with my full weight every day! Take that!

Okay. I had to pause my writing for a few moments to compose myself… One more deep breath…exhale slowly…go to my happy place.

It is a digital scale and is prone to misreading sometimes so when I first saw 211 on the scale I thought that maybe it is a little whacked out. My practice has been that I will step on it, read the number, get off to let it reset, then repeat until I get a number twice. Lame huh? It’s like getting weighed by a panel of judges and averaging their scores. So this morning I stepped on and off the scale three times and saw the exact number each time.

“Of course you know…this means war!” Daffy Duck. It is so nice to have a quotable role model. My plan for today was for no workout. But I think that has to change. It’s not a big deal to squeeze a mid-day workout into my schedule today but it will mean some adjustments. I will cut my lunch from an hour to 30 minutes and will only have time for the treadmill but that is better than nothing.

This is Easter week and there is a lot of candy in the work area. I have tried to be good and have generally held back but maybe had more than I thought. Or maybe just being near the candy causes it to seep though the pores in my skin… That must be it. I need to live in a bubble to prevent candy leaching into my system. All of this weighs heavily upon the upcoming Easter dinner. I will have to hold to good food only and steer away from the high calorie stuff. I think I will also drink a lot of water just before the meal too.

For the weekend I am planning on a full workout on both Saturday and Sunday so maybe I can get back on track. If I look at my weight loss from week to week, as I described in my last posting, last Friday I weighed in at 209 pounds. As of yesterday, I was three pounds under that and things looked great, but with my five pound gain today I end the week with a two pound gain for the week ending today.