All posts by gendjlee

Still working


Specifically, I’m still working on the long promised “Exercise” article. However, I think it’s just gonna have to wait a while. I just started physical therapy for my arms, and am trying to get back into going to the gym regularly. It’s been difficult because I had gotten well into this routine of doing upper body workouts one day, lower the next, then a day off, another upper, another lower, then two days off. This was my week. It was simple, easy.

Now I have to try to do three days a week at the gym, instead of four, but they are all lower leg workouts, and since we are so restricted in this fashion, they are a lot tougher than the normal workouts.

Each time I go my legs are ridiculously sore, so that using stairs, to go up, or even down, evokes much cursing.

Still, since last week I was sick, as was my trainer, we agreed to two sessions this week, which are done, and then I’m hoping to go in tomorrow to get another workout in. At least that will establish one week in which I did what I want to do.

In the meantime, I’m going to work more on putting out at least one post a week, if not more, and go back, as previously promised, to the old format, with a little of some new ideas as well.

Ta!

by gendjlee on January 18, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Weight Loss

Posted by gendjlee on January 18, 2013

http://exercisedammit.com/2013/01/18/still-working/

Diet


So, I’d posted just a little bit ago, basically saying that there probably wouldn’t be another post (the one I’d promised you at least) for a while, but here it is! See that, things are looking up already!

In my last article, “The Soft Re-Opening”, I mentioned a number of updates. The two I’ll focus on between this article and the next are diet and exercise. Of course, these are the very foundation upon which weight loss is built. Good health and fitness set upon the structure of diet and exercise.

This article will contain the first, diet. As indicated in the update, I want to go back a year and work our way to now, highlighting successes and failures, ideas tried, etc…

A year ago, Thanksgiving of 2011 had just passed and Christmas was on its way. I had started losing real weight (more than the typical water weight), which blew my mind. I didn’t think I had it in me. I’d really given up on ever losing weight without surgery. I hadn’t lost the first hundred yet, mind you, in fact, I’m not sure I was out of the “500 club” (how I refer to weighing 500 or more pounds; right now, I’m trying to get out of the 400 club) yet, but what I had lost was truly encouraging.

Still I overate at Thanksgiving, not quite as bad as years past, but I had a fill. I want to say the same thing happened Christmas. The truth is my eating habits weren’t much better. I was eating breakfast on most days, and given which week it was, I probably was struggling with recording what I was eating. I still have that struggle, but I’ve gotten better at it.

Even then, with the shoddy, inconsistent journaling that I was doing, it was having an effect – I was seeing on paper what I was eating. Even when I wrote it down from memory and forgot things, I still got a good idea, and having strings of days and occasionally weeks where almost all of it is there gives a VERY good idea of what one’s diet is like. It’s like giving yourself tools. You could walk into Harbor Freight and fill a cart with tools you need around your house and walk right out with them, just skip past the checkout lines – it’s a shopping spree! So why not give yourself the tools? I still have to ask myself that sometimes, when I’ve let myself get behind a day on the journaling.

I had a little splurge last night – a year ago a splurge might have involved a buffet or a discount at some restaurant, maybe Denny’s or Bennigan’s (yes, only the finest restaurants, thank you), or Breakfast with Becker at the TA truck stop/All You Can Eat diner. Maybe just a call to Carmelo’s in Bridgeton for a cheesesteak (garlic) stromboli (the thing’s a honkin’ monster!) with a couple of appetizers (variety!), something cola (mix garlic and cola and I can let out {oral} gastric emissions that will curl your nose hairs. And now you know that. Condolences.), etc…

Last night, I went to Bennigan’s with my friend Mark and his lovely girlfriend Kathleen. Kat had a burger, Mark ordered a Turkey O’Toole (sliced turkey, cheese, a little dijon on a pretzel roll. Quite nice), and I ordered a bricked rocket steak salad (with LOTS of nice green leafies and a light balsamic). Mark and I also ordered fajitas and shared them. I let myself eat more than I normally would, but still took home fajitas and salad. We also had some tortillas with salsa before dinner, and I had a slice of carrot cake after.

All told, not an unhealthy meal, except maybe the carrot cake at the end, and even then, only because it was as late at night as it was. But last year it would have been a lot worse, and before I’d started working with Eeks? *shiver*

I slowed down on the blog around the time my weight loss slowed down, which was late Winter, approaching Spring (I think). Around that time, I was still struggling with the journaling and really just starting to find some success with diet. One thing I’d learned from all this recording is that there really wasn’t enough consistency in my eating. There wasn’t a lot of balance either. I was eating breakfast consistently. That made a huge difference. But it wasn’t enough. I finally decided that I wanted to try three meals a day. I could eat at other times, if hungry, but I wanted three meals a day, morning, mid-day and evening.

And each of those meals would consist of a serving from each food group. You know, a balanced diet, almost! It’s funny, how simple this ended up being. I never really got that whole food pyramid business, which is now something completely different, thanks to government by Monty Python (who would probably do a better job – wouldn’t you all rather see Johnny Cleese up on the supreme court?).

The food schemes had always been complicated because it all boils down to a serving. What’s a serving? Depends on who you ask. Notice that the food companies change serving sizes to suit their needs – their needs being you feeling secure enough about the nutritional values to buy the product.

So what exactly IS a serving? I decided that I couldn’t be bothered with that drivel. May be the best thing I ever did. Look, I can figure out a basic idea of what a serving is – so can you! A slice of bread? 1 bread serving! An apple, 1 fruit serving! Yogurt – whatever seems reasonable to you! My yogurt servings are smaller than what’s recommended on the Fage containers. Simply because I don’t feel like I need a damn cup or two of yogurt, a few spoons will do (mind you, in a mini container, the serving is MUCH smaller, you see what I mean?).

So I call the shots on the servings, and each meal basically has one of each. I did that, and it was MUCH easier to track what I was eating. The only trouble I had was remembering the 5 food groups. Of course there’s fruit, vegetable and meat (which I just refer to as “protein”), but even now cereals and dairy tend to, at least momentarily, elude me.

But you can write them down. In fact, I highly recommend it – make a list  make 5 lists – one for each food group, with foods that you like from each one. There’s a solid starting point. All you have to do to each a nice balanced meal then is go through each food group at a time and pick what you want. Done-ski.

Once you’ve established that for a week or so, it’s time to start playing with it – maybe you have two slices of toast in the morning, and skip bread at lunch or dinner. Of course, if you decided to have two protein, you don’t have to skip anything! Same for fruit and vegetables!

Then you can get into splitting up the meals, so that you’re eating something more like 6 meals than three. I’d start with breakfast. This is how it went and somehow, following this practice, I came to the point where, granted, it’ll still help if I continue, but I really don’t NEED to record what I eat. I don’t enjoy crap foods the way I used to.

Somewhere along the way I learned something else – about my stomach. I splurged late one evening. Started eating and had a hard time stopping. I’m sure I set off some kind of trigger and there I was. Well, I noticed that I was starting to feel full. It had been a while since I’d felt full – that’s a good thing.

Now here I was feeling full, which probably meant I should stop eating soon, but I didn’t. Suddenly I was in pain. Up until then, my stomach had been shrinking down from it’s normal, engorged size. And I decided to fill it right back up. The pain I felt, I soon realized, was the stomach organ stretching.

Suddenly, I felt like throwing up, and on two different levels. I’ve come to understand bulimics over the past year or so. I actually really get it. As I sat there that night, in pain, I seriously thought about throwing my fingers down my throat and letting it all back up. I put it down there, now I want it back, is that so wrong? I didn’t want to deal with the consequences that all that food was going to put on me!

Not only did I want it out, but I actually felt like I might throw up whether I wanted to or not. That put my head over the toilet. I actually considered trying, at some point, to induce the vomiting. I was scared. I knew I’d like it. I’ve been sick enough that vomiting has given me relief before, and I knew it would give me overwhelming relief then.

I had to take responsibility for what I’d done. I didn’t really want to vomit, because if I did, whether I’d made it happen or not, I’d enjoy some part of it. I’d want to do it again. I’d start looking at things a certain way – where I can eat what I want and just vomit it out. I’ve got enough “f’ing” problems.

So I tried very hard not to vomit, though I kept my head over the toilet. Swallowed back, breathing exercises, everything I’ve ever taught myself to avoid vomiting. I succeeded. I showed myself something important – that I’d take the consequences of my binging and splurging, over using vomit as a “get out of jail free card”. I’d deal with any weight gain and just keep hacking at it until I’d lost that weight again.

I began to look at it as a road traveled. For most of my life, I enjoyed the feeling of my stomach stretching. I’d go to a buffet, look it over, say “Yes!” and waddle out of there feeling so… euphoric, relaxed, my stomach felt like it was in love with me. These are some awfully frightening words, when I think about it. I LOVED the feeling of my stomach stretching out, and managed to ignore that this is exactly what was happening.

Even worse, I LOATHED the feeling of my stomach shrinking. I had to come to terms with that too, that night. That awful, squirking, skulking, whining feelingin the pit of your stomach, that you get when you’re REALLY REALLY hungry, is your stomach shrinking (I think). And I’ve avoided that all my life. I hated it.

Now, mind, I still don’t really LIKE it. But I embrace it. If I feel it, I don’t immediately start looking for food, I determine if I need any. Can I wait, or am I being too active to risk running through my nutrients?

So the path – most of my life walking in one direction, suddenly I’m walking in a different direction. I’m going the other way, and occasionally, I’m going to get sidetracked here and there. It would be foolish to hope for the impossible. So I have to deal with that, and the most important thing is how I deal with it – do I keep going or do I turn around again and head in the proper direction? I can make up a small loss.

So, to help keep unnecessary backsliding to a minimum, I still keep a food journal, and I’m better about writing in it, a lot better. Still not perfect, but no one is. The funny thing is, now that I have that taken care of, there’s still plenty in the food world I need to work on. For one thing, I need to wrap my head around calories. I can keep track of my calories if I get a better handle on it. Again, I’m going to need to apply certain principles, like not getting too overworked about precision. But I’ll get it.

Next article I’ll be talking about exercise, which is what I’m off to do right now!

by gendjlee on December 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Food, Goals, Health, Nutrition
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on December 8, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/12/08/diet/

Another Update


There’s been a big setback – I sprained my elbow (muscular). Not sure how badly yet. This is not the same arm that I damaged a couple of years ago (that was my right arm, this is my left) but it’s the same type of sprain, same type of damage to the same muscles, essentially, but thankfully, not quite as bad.

I called the specialist the ER referred me to but they’d closed early. Hopefully this won’t be as bad as it appears to be, but even then, it’s a setback. No matter what, I’m going to have to alter my workouts. All of the weight training is going to be lower body now, maybe some core work. I’m really going to have to up the game on cardio, maybe start hitting the classes they have at the gym. For now, I’m taking it easy. Let the arm get as little aggravation as possible and give the legs a chance to get up to task for the workouts that are coming to them.

Planning on going in for a leg workout tomorrow. Have a session with Mike on Tuesday; I’ll have to ask him about what we can do to keep the workouts up to four days a week. As for the article I was writing, it’s basically written, just needs to be edited, and by happy coincidence, the fact that I hurt my arm doesn’t keep me from typing, as long as the arm stays basically stationary.

by gendjlee on December 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Administrative Junk, Weight Loss

Posted by gendjlee on December 8, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/12/08/another-update/

Quick Update


I was really hoping I’d have the next article published by Wednesday, but I guess I need to be more realistic. I do know what the article is going to be, and this is as good a time as any to address what the coming articles will focus on.

Next article (the one that should have been published already): My diet – I’ll be taking a look at the second update that I posted in the last article, where I was a year ago and what’s changed in the interim to get me to where I am now.

Following article: Exercise

Next article (currently planned): What’s been having the most positive effects.

So, that’s about it for now. Just wanted to get SOMETHING out there, so the few people that are actually looking right now don’t give up hope!

by gendjlee on December 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Administrative Junk, Weight Loss

Posted by gendjlee on December 6, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/12/06/527/

The Soft Re-Opening


I can’t say exactly what I’ve been waiting for. There’s plenty to update… plenty of ideas to write about. I think that’s why I stopped keeping this blog up, I had lost some weight but factors kept getting in the way, a lot of which had to with physical limitations. Those still exist, and are still disabling, but there has been a lot of improvement.

This first new blog post will be in the form of updates. There’s a lot to tell, but I’d like to get it all out first, in a series, then maybe later I’ll expound. Also, see the bottom for a great recipe!

Update #1 – I believe I’d mentioned that I was fighting to receive disability. I won. Rather, the state appointed lawyer won. A few months ago I received the bulk of my back benefits. This has made things far simpler. There’s still a lot that I have to take care of, and I’m laughably far from financially solvent, but at least there’s a little more stability.

Update #2 – My diet has improved drastically. I’ll go in to the past at another time, but currently my problem seems to be not eating enough, as opposed to eating too much. Also, I’m eating the right kinds of foods. I’m sure I make mistakes here and there, but they’re far more minor than they used to be. From here on in, it might be smooth sailing as far as diet goes, a few tweaks here and there. I still have to understand calories better, because I’m still not counting them. That’s probably my biggest obstacle right now.

Update #3 – I have finally begun a real exercise program. I guess I finally determined that the problem in my exercise equation was me. A lot of times, the best option for simplifying your problems is to remove yourself from the equation. Here I saw that I had no idea what a good exercise program was, and that I’m not very good at holding myself accountable when it comes to exercise. Furthermore, it’s hard to be accountable to Eeks, particularly in this area, because we’ve never met.

I took a good chunk of the money I received from disability and purchased a two-year membership at Anytime Fitness. It’s actually a three-year membership, because they give you an extra year for free, when you pay in full. I also signed up to work with a personal trainer once a week, who helps me out more than that, when I’m working out while he’s there. So whether I work out during the week or not, I have to see this guy, once every week. Maybe I could skip a week, sure. But the next week, then what? I’ve already paid for the gym membership. I’m going to have to face the music.

Being accountable to someone else allows me to put more focus on what it is I’m supposed to be doing. Again, I’ll save the details for later, but I will say now that my abilities have improved already, including something I never thought possible – I kind of enjoy using a treadmill!

Update #4 (finally): My weight. When I stopped writing I was around 440 lbs, I think. It went up, I noticed (after not having used the scale for a week or so, I imagine), to a little over 470. I tightened up on what I was eating and looked for opportunities to exercise, even if just stretching my legs. If anyone invited me to a gym or to walk somewhere, and I was up to the task, I went.

My weight went back down to 440. From there I relaxed the eating slightly, but kept the activity up as best I could. Fall came and I got rather busy. It didn’t hurt matters that my disability money had come in and I could actually enjoy my yearly trip to Ocean City, among other things. I was still fairly active, but I really relaxed on my eating.

This time my weight didn’t balloon so high though. I got back up to around 460, and used a notebook I had picked up along with a lot of organizational materials I bought with the disability money. It’s a simple notebook, one of those black and white (marble design) numbers from mead. 100 double-sided sheets of blue lined paper with the red margin. It has my name on the front (no, my name’s not Mead), along with the date I started using it.

Inside I keep a record of what I eat on one side of the sheet, and a log of any exercise I did on the other sheet. I started working out at the gym, 3 days a week. Since then I’ve increased it to 4 days. My weight not only dropped back down to 440, it’s been dropping off and on ever since. It was one of the last days of October when I purchased my membership. A few days later I started working with Mike.

As of this morning the scale read 416 pounds. That’s not only 144 lbs in total, that’s also 24 pounds in 5 weeks! And we’re still going. Today marks the end of my two-day break from the gym. The muscles in my legs are nagging at me to get back on it. Shame for them, they won’t get worked until Tuesday, except for some cardio between now and then. I really want to let them mend some.

I’ve had a little trouble the past few weeks with overdoing things. We’ll cover that soon, too. Expect another post sometime around Wednesday (I hope) going into detail with at least one of these updates! I hope to post on all my may days off from the gym (Sat, Sun and Wed).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

RECIPE!

So, here’s a new feature I want to introduce. We’ll bring back the other features shortly, but for now I’m going with this.

Crunchy Salmon Wraps

I don’t know how many this feeds, I don’t have measurements for you either.

We start with two tortillas. Any kind that’s flour based will do. Multi-grain are better. You want to avoid corn.

I used a spinach tortilla and a sun-dried tomato tortilla – tasty and colorful!

On the night previous we made roasted salmon for dinner. We took filets of salmon and present thickly cut chunks of garlic into the salmon. There were some curry seasonings, I think, and each filet was wrapped in foiled, then thrown in the oven.

It came out wonderful and I used one leftover filet for this recipe.

I first heated the tortillas – my favorite way to do this is to turn on the stove top range. This will work best with a gas or electric range. Either the coils or the fire warms and slightly cooks the tortilla (as long as you keep on top of it) it takes a little skill and I’m not sure I’ve heated a tortilla any other way in quite a few years.

After that, I took some humus with “Tuscan herbs”, which equates out to some reddish/greenish mess in the center of the humus. It’s a tasty mess, though. I slathered the humus onto the warm tortillas and followed that with was freshly washed raw kale and romaine lettuce.

I’m going to be writing about kale pretty soon here. I’ve decided to give it a try and like it. Everything I’ve read so far seems to sing its praises, so I’ll be writing about it soon enough.

I also threw in a few raw string beans, for extra crunch, before breaking up the salmon filet and divvying it up between the two wraps.

That’s really all it took. One average sized filet of salmon with plenty of garlic pressed into the side (or however you like it), however much raw kale and romaine lettuce you like, a reasonable amount of humus and two tortillas. Plenty of protein, nutrients and solid calories, and it’s relatively easy to make.

Have fun!

by gendjlee on December 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Exercise, Fitness, Food, Goals, Health, Nutrition, Weight Loss
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on December 2, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/12/02/the-soft-opening/

Organization and Motivation: Part 1


Issues that I’m dealing with lately – the two big ones are motivation and organization. Let’s be honest, I’ve been struggling with organization all of my life. OK, perhaps not all – I’m sure I wasn’t even the least bit concerned with it at 2 years of age, but when I was 6 a nun started yanking on my hair because of the state of my desk – she wasn’t even my teacher! (I didn’t even make it ¾ of first grade at the Catholic school)

My psychologist seems to think that organization can wait, motivation is more important. I suppose, in some ways, it is; if I’m not motivated to organize my life, how will I ever manage it? Still, I feel like my lack of organization gets in the way of my motivation. Every time I start to do one thing, I notice that there’s something else that’s also rather important, which needs to be done as well. I should probably make a note and stick to what I’m already working on, until it’s finished, but I feel like I must give attention to this other thing that needs doing. I think I convince myself that it won’t take long, but that’s not always true. Plus, I don’t always get back to the original thing I was doing.

The worst is when this gets strung out – I’m working on one project, and I remember something very pressing that needs to be done, so I try to take care of that first. Then I realize that I’ve completely forgotten about something altogether different. I waste time trying to decide whether I should stick to what I’m doing or try and take care of this newly realized issue, and usually end up moving on to the new issue. And so on, and so forth.

The result – I start a lot of things and get very few of them done. I guess that’s a pretty strong sign of disorganization. Not surprised. I really need to work on this. Part of the problem, I think, is that there are obligations attached to some of the things I do. It’s not that hard for me to ignore Facebook, or check it for a moment and then get back to what I’m doing. I have no real obligation to anyone to use FB.

But I do have obligations in other areas. I get some of the bigger ones covered – appointments and such, but even in that area I manage to screw up. And once I get off track, it’s tough to get back on.

We had a June storm knock out our power for about 5 days and tear up the property as well, and that really knocked me down a peg or two, in a few areas.

Anyway, I’m going to have to figure this out and make it work. This issue with the organization and motivation, it’s like the chicken and the egg: Which came first/Which to work on first? Is it even possible to make one work without the other?

I haven’t really discussed motivation and the details of that problem, yet. I’ll make that next week’s article. The plan with this blog, for the moment, is to post weekly, and increase the frequency as I go along. To punctuate the problem I have with organization – I was originally working on another project, when I realized that I still haven’t gotten a blog post done this week. So far, I can at least say, that since I started writing this article, I haven’t given it up for another project. Yet.

You know, just from reading what I’ve written here, and trying to decide on a title, I’ve come to realize that there is yet a third problem that conspires with my two main problems – priorities. More on that later.

by gendjlee on July 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Goals, Scheduling, Weight Loss
Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on July 13, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/07/13/organization-motivation-p1/

HEY! QUIT TALKING TO YOURSELF – Better yet… start.


I started out writing this post to those who already talk to themselves, either in private or whenever they damn well please (like me). However, it’s come to my attention that this is basically EVERYONE, and if you aren’t inclined to do it, there are strong benefits to trying.

Basically, I grew up talking to myself, and getting scolded for it. For much of my life, when I would get caught talking to myself, I’d feel a lot of shame… which really is a shame, because as it turns out, talking to yourself is healthy. Shame… not so much.

This all went on until I was a truck driver. At first, I was what they call a “team driver”. That meant I had to share a truck with another driver. I slept while he drove, and he slept while I drove. There were a lot of downsides to this arrangements and very few upsides. Granted, you had some company, but you didn’t always want it, especially depending on the type of co-driver you had.

There’s an old joke in the trucking business – What’s the difference between a prison cell and the cab of a big-rig? Answer: There’s a toilet in your prison cell.

There’s another difference as well – prison cells are roomier. Sharing those cramped quarters with someone is just no good. I had to get out of it.

So, I found myself in a solo driving position – just me in the truck, but no one to talk to. Don’t get me wrong, I talked to at least 1 friend on the phone a day. I had satellite radio, so there was almost always plenty to choose from in entertainment. I often chose the talk shows – particularly the funny ones. Stand-up, if nothing was on. And then there was always the CB radio – if anyone had their ears on.

And I’d catch myself talking to myself – sometimes someone else would – another trucker, passing me. I’d realize he could see me and, well, you know, try to pretend that I was singing, or something. Somehow, I don’t think they were fooled.

At some point, I got tired of worrying about it. Hell, the 4-wheelers couldn’t see me (that would be most of you – the people who drive, but not tractor-trailers), and my fellow truckers couldn’t see me unless they were passing me, or vice-versa.

And I’d occasionally get caught at a truck stop, or while picking up/dropping my load at the docks. In fact, that’s a big part of the reason I started using bluetooth. Anytime someone saw me talking to myself, and gave me the weird look, I’d just point at my earpiece! I think a few were probably unconvinced, but I didn’t give a damn.

That let me talk to myself wherever I was. At times, I’d carry on a conversation with myself, no matter how many people were around. They couldn’t tell that I wasn’t on the phone – it was FUN!

Anyway, I’ve been out of trucking for four years, and I gave up the earpiece. Not sure if it’s because there are so many more people around me, or because I readily tell people that I’m just talking to myself. If they don’t like it, tough.

 

Perhaps you’re wondering why it is so important to me, why I’ve made it such a big part of my life. There are a number of reasons – for one: I can use a self-convo to rehearse a conversation I’m going to have with someone – that helps me to be better prepared. I can use it to remind myself of things I need to do. It helps me to focus and keeps things fresh in my mind.

I can also explore ideas this way. When listening to stand-up, or a talk show, I’d often turn down the volume and begin conversating with myself regarding a point that I found interesting in the show I was listening to. Sometimes, just for a semi-external point of view, I’d imitate one of the people from the show, trying to come at it from his or her perspective.

This is just scratching the surface, and it may sound a bit crazy, so I thought I’d see if any research has been done to illustrate my points. Turns out, there is quite a bit, and it’s been making news! Here’s a sampling of what I found:

 

My favorite: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57431779-10391704/study-talking-about-yourself-online-provides-similar-brain-reward-as-sex-eating/

 

Another good one, points out the advantage this habit provides when learning something new: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-05-29/news/31890815_1_new-skill-learning-darts

 

Remember, it DOESN’T mean that you’re crazy: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120417221613.htm

 

And even Time Magazine says that talking to yourself is a GOOD idea: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/25/talking-to-yourself-may-actually-be-a-good-idea/

If you’re wondering what this has to do with weight loss – being prepared, more focus… it all plays in. I find that I end up exercising a lot more when I actually tell myself, OUT LOUD, that I’m going to exercise, when, and what I will do. Same goes for eating well. Not only do I tell myself what I will eat, but I also tell myself what I won’t eat. It really does seem to make a difference!

So, there you go! I intend to be back here next week, with AT LEAST one new blog post for you!

by gendjlee on July 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eating, Weight Loss
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on July 6, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/07/06/hey-quit-talking-to-yourself-better-yet-start/

Triggerburger, anyone?


Alternate title – GREASE IS THE WORD.

I’m glad to be reviving this blog; I’ve missed writing it. What’s more, I really felt in control while I was writing it. I think it actually helped me to lose weight, something I really haven’t done much of since I stopped writing.

When I take it in that sense, it seems that this blog is my support group. Hey, maybe that’s it! You guys are my support group! I know the ones I’ve been to before weren’t very helpful. But you know, I noticed one common denominator  – when folks aren’t doing so good, they don’t like to show up. And that’s usually when they need support the most! Weight Watcher’s – you know when those folks go off their diet, they go off the reservation too!

They always tell themselves that they’ll come back after they lose some more weight. Some of them go through with that promise, and they either lose some weight and come back, or they don’t, and they don’t. I don’t want to be the one that doesn’t.

So, what’s happened since the last writing (not counting the update to the main page)? Well, as mentioned I had to take about a month off of the “program”. Of course, there really isn’t a set program. It changes all the time, I think that’s a necessity. That’s why the average “diet” doesn’t work. The closer you are to rigidity in routine, the more intangible will be your success.

I believe I made an update shortly after I stopped posting regularly, explaining why. After both Mom and Marcie were able to make it upstairs, their reliance on me was lessened greatly. However, by that time, the damage had been done. I hadn’t been exercising, or even stretching every day! I kept a focus on eating well, and was going strong for a short while, but little by little weaknesses were triggered.

I don’t really regret that, because I learned a lot about my triggers, for example – that I have them, and what they are. If you’re wondering what I mean by triggers – I’m talking about a food, which – for starters, is hard to resist. Pizza is one. Just the smell of it! Now, pizza, itself, isn’t really so bad, especially thin crust! You’ve got a small amount of bread (sorry, Sicilian fans), some tasty (albeit salty, and sometimes sugary!) pizza sauce, and part-skim mozzarella cheese. If you stick with vegetable toppings (mushrooms and onions!) you’re doing even better.

But there’s grease involved. It gets in my mouth, my nose, and even my fingers! And I have a hard time stopping at just a slice or two. There’s not a lot to be proud of in saying that at one time I could take out an extra-large pie on my own. Hell, I could do that now if I let myself. At one point I could have taken out two with little trouble. So, I guess it makes sense that just being around it makes me want to EAT.

Even at my most disciplined attempt – eating two slices and no more – guess what’s for breakfast? 2 more slices. And lunch? Maybe three more! Until it’s gone, that’s what I eat. Since it’s awakening these cravings in me, I end up trading too much pizza for two slices, followed by hours of temptation to stuff my face. Don’t think I never give in and stuff away, either.

Cheesesteak – same deal. Lamb, even! I mean, who would think lamb? But lamb is pretty fatty, and that means grease! Of course, around the time I went off-program, Rita’s Water Ice Opened up. If you’re not from around here, you might not know Rita’s. Heck, you might not know Italian water ice. But you’ve probably heard of Hawaiian shaved ice, or something like it. Basically it’s very small bits of ice (granular) mixed with some flavored syrup. Rita’s is supposed to be a little closer to natural and it tastes delicious!

Well, Dad decided that he just can’t resist some Rita’s, and who does he send to get it? Me. So I was good. I went, picked up the water ice, brought it home. None for me. I’m just making the run. But he started wanting it every day, so every day I’m running out there and picking up orders for him and everyone else in the house. Well, you know, every day they had flavors I hadn’t tried yet, and they sounded so good! Like Red Velvet Cake! How does one turn that down?

Of course, they have free samples. Well, that’s a great way to try a flavor without sinning too much, right? So I did that for a few days, but then I got to thinking, how would that flavor taste in a Blendini (basically a treat that combines water ice, soft serve ice cream, and candy), or a Misto (water ice milkshake). And after I’d eaten something like that, I was far more likely to binge. Another trigger.

Not only did I learn to identify many triggers, I learned how to deal with them. For example, if I’m going to eat something greasy, I need to wash my hands and wash out my mouth. If it’s extra greasy, like pizza, the kind of greasy that doesn’t just get into my hands and mouth but my nose and my skin – I can feel it! And it makes me WANT TO EAT! Well, when that happens, I need to wash my face to, especially the outside of my nose. The grease fills my pores and I can feel the blockages. I don’t know why, but it makes me want to eat.

So, foods like that take some preparation. I need to plan on how much I’m going to eat, and make sure I won’t have any access to leftovers. I also need to make sure that I have what I need to clean myself up afterward. Not just any soap either. I don’t even care about anti-bacterial at this point – I want grease cutting. Palmolive is my friend!

Not only do I have to scrub the pores in my nose, and other parts of my face, even with slightly greasy foods, if my fingers did the touching, then my nails need the scrubbing. Any old nail scrubber just won’t do either. I need something that’ll get UNDER THOSE NAILS! This is no time to be shy! I went to the hardware store and picked up a tile grout scrubber. This looks like a big toothbrush with thick, clear bristles that are used to clean, and in some cases, rip the old grout out between tiles. You know, the hard, cement like kind. That gets almost anything out from under my nails, and they feel fresh and clean. My cravings are behind me.

As for cleaning out my mouth, one way to do it is to drink water with what I’m eating. Now, when I’m eating pizza, I prefer to drink soda. They just pair so well. In fact, the only thing that pairs better with pizza than soda, is beer! But these options just aren’t productive. For one thing, I’ve basically put regular soda behind me. I’ll still have a rare sip, but I can’t even stand the taste of some sodas anymore. Diet soda just tastes like crap, but it still pairs with pizza. Beer just isn’t an option. When I do have a few beers, I try to keep it simple – just beer. I don’t need extra crap. And frankly, I’m drinking less and less, because I don’t need all the calories and carbs. Though I’m not crazy about wine, I do have a glass here and there, since I understand that can actually help with weight loss, among other things.

Even if I drink water with my food, it’s not enough to properly clean out my mouth, but seltzer water can be. I love seltzer. It’s the perfect meeting between soda and water. I don’t need the sweetness or other flavor. Just the fizz will do, thank you. And it’s perfect for cleaning! Seltzer makes a great cleaning agent. So great that many food service businesses use them to clean the soda nozzles every night. It’s ridiculously cheaper than a normal cleaning agent and by morning, those nozzles and squeaky clean! And guess what – it does a hell of a job cleaning your mouth. That makes it easier to stop eating, and – with a good glass of the stuff at the end of the meal, keeps the cravings at bay, baby!

Well, that’s enough for today. I’ll be back, next chance I get, to fill you in not only on the past, but the present too!

by gendjlee on May 31, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Food, Nutrition, Weight Loss
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on May 31, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/05/31/triggerburger-anyone/

Another Quick Update


As I said before, I’d rather do a full post on the weekdays, with the features that I normally include during the week. The last few days have been fairly hectic though, and I’m really just trying to keep up. I’m getting it back on track, though. Made it out to a Doctor’s appointment today, and though I haven’t gotten a morning workout since Monday, I should be able to get that back in action tomorrow.

 

by gendjlee on March 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Weight Loss

Posted by gendjlee on March 29, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/29/another-quick-update/

A Break from the Norm


Not that there’s much of an established norm, yet, but I know what I would like the norm to be, and today is not it. I mentioned a friend that was in the hospital. She has no family to speak of, and though I haven’t asked her permission to say so, we are the closest thing to family she has.

In any case, she’s been there since Saturday and has been having some problems with the Doctor assigned to her. Other than him, she got wonderful service from the nursing staff, physical therapist, patient relations department, among others. However, the problem with the Doctor was continuing, so I went in today, not only to visit, but to meet with the patient relations specialist and get my “cousin” a new doctor.

There were some complications, but the hospital really went out of their way to help her, and got a surgeon (coincidentally, one that I had dealt with before, and of whom I have a high opinion) to take over her case. He did an excellent job and after verifying that her blood sugar was alright (there had been an issue) discharged her to come home.

All in all, although it took me out of my normal routine, I am very happy with today’s proceedings so far. I did manage to get a little exercise in, though not as much as I’d like, but the day isn’t over yet!

Now that she’s home and settled in, I have to get to certain chores, so today’s post will be a short one – no specials, jokes or beautiful things. If you’d still like to see something beautiful today, you can always got to Photobotos and see what their image is today, or, just step outside! It’s GORGEOUS out there. Well, it is where I am.

 

by gendjlee on March 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Weight Loss

Posted by gendjlee on March 27, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/27/a-break-from-the-norm/

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