All posts in category Eating

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/

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/

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
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Posted by gendjlee on May 31, 2012

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

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!


I’ve noticed a trend over the past decade. Perhaps it’s been going on for a long time, it’s just that I’ve only noticed it in the past ten years or so – “diet” is a dirty word. You go to Weight Watchers and what do they tell you? “You are NOT on a diet! We don’t do that here!” Most of the “diet books” out there claim that they are not, in fact, diet books! No one wants to be associated with the word “diet”. And it has little to do with the word itself, but instead, what’s been done with that word.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight and dealt with one of these… I don’t know what you’d call them… “non-dieters”? Well, if you’ve dealt with them, you’ve probably heard them say “Diets don’t work!”. So you call it something else? That makes it all better, does it?

Really, they’re just trying to stand out from those who put out ineffective diets and promise results that you really shouldn’t expect. And when you’re in the business of making honest money off of another person’s problems, I guess you need to distinguish yourself from the shady side of the business as much as you can.

Still, a diet’s a diet. Actually, a diet is the food you eat, whether you want to lose weight or not. A diet plan is really what they’re all talking about – a specific set of foods and manner of eating them, with the purpose of achieving a goal. I don’t know if that’s how Webster would put it, but that seems to be the best definition, to me. Using that definition, we could make the argument that a person that wants to gain weight, and does so by changing the foods he eats, is on a diet – that’s true. One might also suggest that all vegans are on diets… I suppose when they first make the choice to try veganism, then yes, they are on a diet. If they choose to accept it as their way of life, then it’s no longer a diet, it’s their diet – their Normal diet.

That’s where some of the diet people get their validity: if you want to lose a lot of weight, and not gain it back, “you have to make a lifestyle change!” Unfortunately, many people hear that and try to jump right into one. I think a very effective way to do it is to identify key points in the life of the average healthy person. How do they eat, how do they exercise, how do they live their life in general? Choose what elements one would like in their own life, eventually. Then sit down and figure out how we’re going to get there.

I can’t tell you the answers to most of those, but I can give you an idea of how to get there, and only because I’m finally starting to figure it out for myself – SMALL changes. How small? AS SMALL AS YOU NEED.

My folks have asked a few times why, suddenly, I’m losing weight now, and all these years before, I’ve been able to do nothing but gain weight, and at best, maintain the weight I had. I blame it on Dr. Eeks. That doesn’t satisfy their curiosity.

So, after thinking about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that her approach is what made the big difference. I don’t like to think like that. I’d rather take responsibility for my own failures. Up until I worked with Erin, I thought there was actually something wrong with me – I just couldn’t manage to lose weight. There were things wrong with me – my metabolism, which was just about non-existent, for example. The problem was that I couldn’t get past them.

I had worked with a number of people. Nutitionists, gym trainers, doctors, etc… I’d been to Weight Watchers, I’d tried Nutrisystem, tried Slim Fast… I’ve read a small library of diet books, all to no avail. Hell, one of the trainers I’d worked with was a Mr. USA, or Universe, or World, or whatever the hell he’d won. Basically, the guy was a walking muscle, who wanted to help people lose weight.

The thing is, each person I’d worked with was a lot like the books I read – from my perspective, they gave me their plan, told me to use it, and if I found something that wasn’t working for me, I felt like I might as well have tried talking to one of the diet books. The only difference is a book won’t give you that disappointed look-and-sigh. I got a lot of “I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to” and things along those lines.

Now, don’t get me wrong – Dr. Eeks always let me know that the ball is in my court, and that it’s up to me, but I didn’t hear that when I came to her with a change I wanted to make. In fact, I mostly heard it from her when I was doing good – it was said as encouragement! Instead, when I would call her to tell her I wanted to make a change, which I DREADED at first, because of my prior experiences, she would be totally open. She’d want to know about the problem I was having, and sometimes she’d make suggestions, sometimes she’d just want to know what kind of change I’d like to make. And she was usually good with that change. I left those phone conversations feeling wonderful and hopeful about the change I was going to make.

Now, when I’d worked with other people, they usually still “let” me make the change, but they also let me know how unhappy they were about it. Even at Weight Watcher’s – “Fine, we can’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but THIS is how the program works… THIS is how you get success. Good luck with the change you’re making.” What a bunch of cheerleaders.

So, what’s all this leading up to, besides potential transference? Specifically – my eating habits.

I’ve been beating myself up over the way I’ve eaten lately. Forget the fact that I can’t log the food I eat to save my life. When I started working with Erin, it was her intention to get me to eat regularly – 3 meals a day, with a few small snacks thrown in. If I was going to skip any meals, it HAD to be lunch or dinner – NEVER breakfast.

Well, I’ve been pretty successful at eating breakfast for some time, now. But I’ve really been riding myself because I’ve skipped lunch on a regular basis, and sometimes not really eating dinner, either. Instead, I eat here and there. I sat down last night to work out a plan to remedy this and realized that there may not be any good reason to do so.

After all, isn’t eating many times, in small amounts, considered to be healthy, and good for ones metabolism? Isn’t it something that is commonly lauded by amateurs and professionals alike as a major key to weight loss? I’ve finally hit the stage, I think, where I can do this; I’ve been doing it, without even realizing it!

So, this is the direction I’m heading toward now, and I’ll be letting you know how it goes, as time goes on.

JOKE OF THE DAY

I recently was contacted by the police, who wanted to know if I could help the with the whereabouts of my good friend Tim. I wasn’t of much help. The last time I heard from Tim he’d missed his wife’s birthday and was really in the doghouse. In fact, his wife had told him that he had 24 hours to put something in their driveway for her, that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds, or he was done.

I was a little surprised at the look on the cop’s face. I asked him what was wrong – while the couldn’t find Tim anywhere, they did notice a brand new scale at his house…

TODAY’S WORKOUT

Basically a walking day. I actually tried jumping jacks. Um… no. Definitely not a healthy option right now. In any case, I walked around the house for over ten minutes, then decided to take my walk outside. Didn’t take the dogs with me. That simplified things. I could simplify things more if I ever get my music onto my phone, but I can’t find the right cable for that at this time, and I’m having difficulties pairing my phone with my PC. I have to get to work on that.

Anyway, I did some 5 laps up and down the driveway, and felt pretty good. I don’t feel so good now. My back is threatening to go on strike, but I’m just going to have to work through this, to keep losing weight, and get ready for that 5k this October.

TODAY’S SPECIAL

SheBANGS deals with disappointment from a slight plateau. Of course, the truth is that she IS doing wonderfully.

The Better Man Project shares his thoughts for old friends of time past.

Fooodimentary reports that we recently passed National Oatmeal Cookie Day.

SOME THINGS BEAUTIFUL

Two more from Photobotos. The first is… how I describe this… it’s not just beautiful, it looks magical!

Here’s a great picture of some monkeys just chillin’.

by gendjlee on March 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Food, Nutrition, Weight Loss
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Posted by gendjlee on March 23, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/23/changes/

New weight!


My mother apparently read a recent blog post here, because she asked me last night “Are you sure you’ve gained weight?” I wasn’t sure what she meant at first. Yes, my last weigh-in was higher than the one where I’d gotten down to 450, by about 7 pounds, I think, but that’s not much of a change. As long as I don’t put on more than ten pounds from my lowest recent reading, I’m not going to sweat it. Anyway, her point was that it didn’t look like I’d put on 7 pounds, it looked more like I was still losing weight.

I pointed out that it’s very likely that as I’m burning fat, I’m also building muscle, which weighs more than fat (Dr. Eeks actually put up a nice visual in which a “to scale” model of a 5 pound lump of fat was displayed next to a likewise to scale model of 5 pounds of muscle. The fat is nearly twice the size of the muscle. That means that if I burn fat and build muscle, and the quantities of both are equal (let’s say 10 pounds)  the weight won’t change, but as I continue to do so, my size will still change. That’s why, although the scale is the first thing people turn to when trying to lose weight, the numbers aren’t all that important.

I’ve known people that lost weight, but plateaued at some point, got frustrated and quit working out, on top of going back to eating whatever they damn well pleased. For starters – and this will most likely offend some – that’s a good sign that the person wasn’t really doing what they needed to do in the first place. Particularly I’m talking about the food. I basically eat whatever I damn well please (though I need to get better at logging it), but have strove toward a lifestyle change in my diet. I’ve changed what I enjoy. I’ve experimented with healthier foods and have found new things that I like – things which, frankly, are just as satisfying (and in many cases more so) than the crap I used to eat on a normal basis. In fact, even when it’s only “just as satisfying”, it’s still a little more, because I don’t have to feel guilty about what I’m eating.

For example, “what I damn well please” means a lot of protein, lots of raw celery and carrots (at least two of each a day, usually more like 4 or 6 of each a day – they’re kind of a staple of my diet now), frequent fruits, healthy dairy (low-fat, but not fat-free, and good dairy sources, like cottage cheese and Fage’s Greek yogurt) and certain grains. That’s something called a balanced diet, folks, and I didn’t get there overnight. It takes time and determination. I’ll even freely admit that I had a head start when I began working with Eeks this summer, because I’ve been slowly working at changing my diet for years now. I’ve mentioned some of that before, I’m sure – getting myself off of regular soda, to taking myself almost completely off of diet soda as well, opting for seltzer water instead, are just a few very effective examples.

I mentioned the grains category last, partly because that has seen some evolution in my life recently. I’ve discovered a love for wheatberries. Particularly, the raw kind. I don’t even bother soaking them. I’ve asked Eeks if there’s anything I should be concerned about and so far, looks good. Lord, though, they do make you gassy! I’ve also heard they can bind you up in the bowels department… I’ll go so far as to say that not only is has that not been the case with me, but fairly opposite. I’m pleased with the results in that category. After doing a little research, that little tidbit, along with one which indicates that it could cause some kind of dental issue, I’m not finding anything wrong with eating dry, raw wheatberries. So far, the only people that have suggested there are problems with such a practice are those that don’t engage in it, the ones that do swear by it! I’m even going to try my hand at sprouting.

Oh, did I forget something? Well, I had put what my Mom had said out of my mind, until this morning, in the middle of my warmup… on an impulse, I decided to run upstairs and check my weight. Looks like Mom was right as usual – 447! Yes, I know, the way I count my weight, that isn’t much – just a drop of three pounds from my last lowest weigh-in. Still, it’s nice when you think you weigh one number to find out you’re ten pounds lighter than that.

Well, I have a few chores to get to before tonight’s debauchery. There will be lots of liquid carbs to burn off tomorrow, but that’s just fine – I’ll be spending the night at a friend’s house, one who has a lot of property – plenty of room to move around! Erin go bragh!

by gendjlee on March 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eating, Exercise, Health, Weight Loss
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Posted by gendjlee on March 17, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/17/new-weight/

We go from a poor day to a complete setback.


It’s not as bad as all that, but I’m rather unpleased right now. I spent the entire day yesterday cleaning up a friend’s septic back-up. I ruined a pair of shoes doing this, and had to keep taking the shoes on and off as to avoid tracking crap through my friend’s house. At some point, after the flood had been amended, the tank drained, the backup in the pipes loosened and the problem toilet unclogged (yes, this all had to be done), we got to work cleaning out the area of the house that was flooded with you-know-what. Once we cleaned that all up and went over the floors with a pine-oil cleaner, I ended up taking my socks off, as it made it easier to slip in and out of the shoes.

What started as an itch, last night, on the bottom of my foot has turned into a pain that makes me think I must have cut something and infected it, with some remnant of fecal matter.

It didn’t help that due to my exposure to such material, I didn’t feel comfortable eating much of anything. When I was hungry, I’d down a Fiber bar. Water, coffee, cigarettes and fiber bars. That’s what I subsisted on yesterday. Anyone care to guess what I was doing all last night? when you barely eat anything and you have a lot of fiber in your system, good heck do you get gassy! Uncomfortably so!

So, no workout yesterday, no workout today. I have to get my foot look at tonight, and we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

I guess I’ll just have to do that karaoke night in May, instead of April. May’s nicer anyway.

Oh, and guess what else I’ve been dealing with, due to my exposure to this issue? That’s right, extra canidaisis, or however you pronounce it. So, between the foot, the knee and hips (arthritis) and the yeast infection, I’m not much for moving right now. Let is prey that tomorrow is a better day.

by gendjlee on March 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eating, Food, Goals, Weight Loss
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Posted by gendjlee on March 5, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/05/we-go-from-a-poor-day-to-a-complete-setback/

Eating Out – Is That Healthy Choice Really Healthy?


I was just looking over my blog, looking for the post I’d made today (this post), and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find it. Technical difficulties, again.

So, here it is. I hope you’re not disappointed, as I went the easy way today – reblogging someone else’s work.

Eating Out – Is That Healthy Choice Really Healthy?.

via Eating Out – Is That Healthy Choice Really Healthy?.

by gendjlee on March 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Weight Loss
Tagged ,

Posted by gendjlee on March 2, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/02/eating-out-is-that-healthy-choice-really-healthy/

Not my best day


I don’t have much to share with you today, because, for me, today only started a few hours ago. I had trouble sleeping last night, in the house, down in the basement, outside in my truck… I was very, very hot. Uncomfortably so, in the house. Even down in the basement, where it is fairly cool, I felt too warm. Finally I went out to my truck and tried to sleep there.

The coolness was a relief, but I really didn’t get a lot of sleep. Finally (after midnight, sometime), I realized that it’s the first of the month, which means I have a little money, so I went down to the Wawa and got some cigarettes, and an iced coffee (with milk) at the Dunkin’ Donuts.

It’s nice that I can live in the middle of nowhere, but still get coffee and smokes in the middle of the night, when I feel like crap, with no more than a 5 minute drive.

So, I got a few winks in just before daybreak, and woke up shortly after Dawn. I decided to go inside and see about some breakfast. I was a little surprised I hadn’t eaten anything the night before, but I guess I just didn’t feel very hungry. I tried making myself some egg whites, and ate them, but I didn’t feel up to doing anything else. Oddly enough, I felt like sleeping. Of course, I’d basically been up all night. I guess morning is the time when a pseudo-insomniac is finally able to fulfill the need of sleep.

And I didn’t wake up until damm near three in the afternoon.

The good news is that I followed my waking up with a workout! I want that karaoke night at Bennigan’s next month, dammit!

Other than that, like I said above, I don’t have much else to tell you. I ended up making myself a second breakfast after the full half hour workout and my cooldown. Make sure to keep reading, though, because I am going to dissect my workout for you, and there are some GREAT resources for you in Today’s Special. And naturally, there’s Something Beautiful as well, to help keep this blog classy.

Ciao

 

MY WORKOUT

 

So, I promised, above, that I’d break down my workout for you, today, so you can get an idea of how it’s evolved, so far. I’ll point out how recent most of the additions are, from the simple warmup that I was originally doing.

The warmup itself hasn’t changed much. I don’t time it anymore, I just put on the music and start stretching. That takes between five and ten minutes. I will be putting up videos of that, but first I need help with that – I’ll let you know when it happens.

Once the stretching is done, I go to work on the joints, loosening them up (and you funny folk out there, {like me}, I don’t need your help “smokin’ the joints”!), top to bottom. That also takes at least 5 minutes, probably not much more than 10. I would say overall, my total warmup, including the stretches, is taking around 15-20 minutes. Also, I sometimes do this multiple times a day, though the secondary and especially third time doing it are a bit shorter.

From there, I look at the clock. While I’m doing that, I put my hands on the counter and start pumping my legs up and down, to get ready, and relieve my back a little bit. When the clock reaches a 5 or 10 (let’s say 9:15 – that’s the clock reaching a 5, 10:50 – that’s a 10), I figure out what time it will be in a half hour and start my workout by walking around the house 6 times. It’s actually supposed to be 5 times, but I want to add on to it, and I’m doing so slowly, by adding a sixth lap on at the end.

The first set of laps around the house is uneventful. I start at whatever pace I feel like and pick it up by the end of the sixth lap. That’s where I start doing low blocks. Now, originally, I would do a combination of blocks and punches in place. 10 low blocks, 10 punches, 10 high blocks, etc… Then I added on, doing just ten of one type of block, and ten punches/double punches/ triple punches, chops, etc… and then I would walk around the house again, coming back to the counter for more blocks and punches.

It evolved into doing a set of 20 blocks and a set of 20 punches, followed by more laps around the house. Then, I started doing a set of blocks, a set of punches, and a set of blocks, 20 each set, before doing another set of laps around the house.

Eventually, I started working on the laps. I got up to doing 5 laps per set of laps. Then I made the first lap just a walking lap, and on the second I would do walking blocks. The third lap is just walking, and the fourth would be blocks or punches, and I recently change it so that the 4th lap (punches) is actually going up and down the stairs once. That means no punching lap, but I get more out of it. And the 5th lap is just walking again.

Once I get back to the counter, my upper back is usually a little sore, so I put my elbows and forearms on the counter, resting my upper body weight, while pumping my legs. When my upper back is relieved, I change the position so that my hands are on the counter and I keep an eye on the clock. When the minute changes, I start with whatever block I’m on (lower, upper, inner or outer block).

Very recently I’ve made more changes to this section. Once I got up to a set of blocks, set of punches, and a set of blocks, I started doing just one set of blocks, in place, followed by doing those blocks in motion, back and forth across the house. Then I do a block of in place punches (this means the feet don’t move), followed by a block of moving punches (meaning the feet move one step per punch).

This turned into three – 1 set in place blocks, 1 set moving blocks; 1 set in place punches, 1 set moving; 1 set in place blocks, 1 set moving. (This is dull, isn’t it?)

Today, I upped it again, by bumping the number up to four – alternating with blocks first (1 set in place, 1 set moving) then punches, then blocks again, and punches at the end.

What’s interesting is that I’m still pretty ready to stop after 30 minutes, so, I do. I take Buddha, our mascot, out for our cooldown walk, and then sit down on the porch for a bit, relaxing, and sometimes throwing the ball for Buddha (who, for new readers, is our puppy).

Part of the reason I wrote all this down is for me, as well as for you. As for what you get out of it – you get to see what I mean by making small changes. Also, there’s a lot I’ve left out, like what I initially tried with certain additions – instead I’ve just told you what I settled on for each change. An example – I originally decided I’d do two runs up and down the stairs, back to back, at the end of each set of walking laps. That means 5 laps around the house, then up and down the stairs twice. Yeah, right. I can just hear Bill Cosby doing Moses now – riiiiiiiiiight! So, I played with it and tweaked it, during that workout, and over the past few days, to the point where I am satisfied with the change I’ve made.

 

TODAY’S SPECIAL

First two links: We all have those moments, when we had no intention of making complete asses of ourselves, but somehow or another, we managed to push that “ass” button, and we’ve suddenly grown long gray ears and a tail, and are suffering from severe depression, just like Eeyore, the first emo. But it’s not so bad, and if we’re not too self-centered, we can sit back and laugh.

Speaking of depression, one thing that can trigger if, when we suffer, is disappointment. You expected something great, you’d built yourself up for it, and suddenly, everything falls apart. You did your part, but it turns out that wasn’t good enough. It can be enough to turn a person self-destructive, but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s the story of one lady that wouldn’t let it bring her down.

Finally, March 1st is National Peanut Butter day! Nothing like delicious protein! Just make sure you measure it out, my fellow Dammers, if you are hoping to lose weight.

 

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

 

Today’s image comes from Ahmad Budiman and is titled “Children at Play”.

by gendjlee on March 1, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Eating, Exercise, Food, Weight Loss
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Posted by gendjlee on March 1, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/03/01/not-my-best-day/

Run Your Own Race


Last night was tough for me. I kept trying to find diversions, but I was having a lot of problems with depression. So far, the antidepressants I’ve been prescribed haven’t seemed to do anything noticeable for me. On the other hand, they don’t seem to be making things worse (like the first ones I was put on), so…

Exercise seems to be the one of the few things that really makes me feel good these days – one of the only lasting fixes, that is. I guess that makes me lucky… some people haven’t found anything to relieve them. Unfortunately, when I feel like I have to get away from what’s bringing me down and getting me upset, and I go to the park and try to walk it off, I find that I’m making things worse, because I’m not just suffering depression by that point, I’m having an anxiety attack. I didn’t realize that until this past weekend, and it’s a good thing I did. Now I’m paying more attention to that, making sure that I know what I need to remedy before I try.

So, I went to bed feeling lousy. I know, they say never to go to bed mad (actually, that’s usually advice for couples, but I’ve heard it applied to the single person as well. Supposedly it’s unhealthy, but I find it’s better to try to sleep when I’m feeling crappy at night. At some point I’m going to want to sleep, anyway, and if I try to cure myself by working out, then I’ll have all kinds of energy keeping me up all damn night. Not good. On the other hand, if I just go to bed and get some sleep, I usually find I’ll feel better by morning.

This morning was no exception. I did feel better. In fact, it wasn’t a good twenty minutes until I even thought about how I felt the night before. And it was probably about 45 minutes before it really started to set in and I was feeling like shit again. Finally, after a little over an hour, I found that I was trying to talk myself out of working out! Well, I knew that wasn’t going to do me any good, and if I wanted to break the funk, I needed a warmup. As you can see above, I got my ten minutes in, along with another 30, before going outside for a cool-down. After that, I felt great. It’s been hours and I’m still feeling pretty good.

Granted, when the door to one of the kitchen drawers fell off, just from me opening it, that didn’t help matters, but frankly, that’s a trivial thing. I couldn’t have done anything to stop that, and I imagine a wood epoxy will put things to rights. I got some of the cursing out of my system and went about making my breakfast.

Now, to get to the title. When we were children, we were told the story of the rabbit and the hare. The point, or moral, we were told, was that “slow and steady wins the race”. No… slow and steady might win a race or two – especially if you’re racing against some jackrabbit that decides it’s so far ahead of you, it might as well take a nap before crossing the finish line – but if you watch the summer Olympics, you’ll notice that slow and steady doesn’t even QUALIFY for the race!

But, of course, we don’t tell children the truth, because they’re not capable of the deep understanding that we adults are. Actually, depending on the age of the child, I imagine they are quite capable of understanding many a thing which might surprise us; the real problem is a certain area in which WE, the adults, lack. A child may have a shorter attention span that we do, but patience THEY GOT. They’ll ask questions until they’ve forgotten what they’re asking questions about, or we just… run out of patience with them. And what do we do then? Lie, usually.

What, you might ask, IS the moral of the Tortoise and the Hare? It’s as simple as this: Run your own Race. Of course, that does recommend a lot of independence. Perhaps that’s why we keep it from the children.

So, what does that mean, anyway? Run your own race? Whose race WOULD you run, otherwise? Well, yes, what I’m saying is whatever it is you’re doing, you have to make it your own. You can’t go using another person’s diet to run your race, not unless you adapt it to your needs and make it work for you. When it comes to weight loss, your race should be like a fingerprint – similar in some ways, but so unmatched that the world has come to the conclusion that there are no two alike.

If you think I’m talking out of my rear-end, let me explain something – I never really found success with weight-loss until I actually started running my own race. I don’t even think I knew how to, at least not when it came to losing weight. I’d try this diet and that, this exercise program and that. And I would keep the deviations VERY slight. After all, how can the program work if you won’t follow the instructions?

The program that I follow now is based on a framework that Dr. Eeks presented to me (and a million thanks to you, E!), which has been tweaked in divers ways, as I saw need, and sometimes, at Erin’s suggestion. Anything that works, stays; if it doesn’t, goodbye!

When other people start waxing eloquent about what you ought to be doing, or how something that works for you “is really bad for you and you should stop right away!”, keep this in mind – if you want to give them control of your race, and let them run part of it for you, fine. But if you want to run your own race, don’t worry about them. Most people know they don’t know what they are talking about but still talk about it anyway.

Think about that for a second… how many times a day do you witness that? How many times a day are you guilty of the same? As Ron Bennington would say, “It don’t make you a bad person.” In fact, it might indicate the opposite, since we usually do that because we’re TRYING to understand what we’re talking about, and sharing what we’ve come across with others. The intention is to learn and share information, but the result is often an unhappy one.

The best solution to that is to thank the person for their advice and then go about running your own race. If you don’t feel like it will work for you, and what it would replace is already working well, then what’s the point? This is especially true when the person advising you isn’t even drawing from his own experience. He heard about someone else’s race, and now he wants you to run that race! That’s 3rd person don’t-give-a-damn!

If someone tells you the race is over, do you stop, or keep going? Well, you’re giving control of your race over to someone else if you stop. Until you cross that finish line, your race isn’t over, and don’t let anyone tell you it is.

Don’t just run your own race, but run it at your own pace. Who cares if you don’t beat the other runners? This is YOUR race you’re running. If someone puts hurdles in front of you, and you’re not ready to jump hurdles yet, go around.

Is that enough metaphors? I’ll paraphrase one from my father as well: “The race doesn’t go to the fastest, it goes to the determined.” Or, to put it in Galaxy Quest terms, “Never give up! Never surrender!”

Today’s Workout

Fever - Aerosmith
Jackson Cannery - Ben Folds Five
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Carly Simon
Jumpin' Jive - Joe Jackson
SOS - Brosnan & Streep
Take On Me (A Capella Tribute) - BYU's Vocal Point
Flip, Flop and Fly - Blues Brothers
Vrbana Bridge - Jill Sobule
Dude Looks Like a Lady - Aerosmith
Dancing in the Streets - Bowie and Jagger
One Love - Bob Marley
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane

Total – 30 min. Not bad,  especially since that doesn’t count the warmup or cooldown. Just have to do this every day, now.

If the above confuses you, see the end of yesterday’s post.

TODAY’S SPECIAL… IS SEX!

Well, more specifically, it’s a blog post from Natural Knowledge 24/7, and it’s all about aphrodisiacs. What’s that? Aphrodisiacs are a myth? The hell, you say! Well, maybe stuff like “Rhino Horn” and “Horny Goat Weed”, yeah, I’ll grant you… and oysters… oh wait, oysters are actually on that list. And there’s scientific reasoning for it!

Guys, want to eat something that releases an odorless hormone through your sweat and turns women on? Turns out it’s one of my favorite vegetables… this may answer a few questions about me that Mark Franzeo has had for years! Check the blog post out, and you’ll be a regular Svengali in no time!

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

I saw this photo this morning and realized that my idea I had of writing about my philosophy (RYOR) was meant to be. You can call it a coincidence if you like, I call it kismet. And the fact that this photo could be the most normal thing Dali ever came up with doesn’t hurt, either.

That’s it for today! Come back tomorrow for more!

by gendjlee on February 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Diet, Eating, Exercise, Food, Weight Loss
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by gendjlee on February 21, 2012

http://exercisedammit.com/2012/02/21/218/

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