Different Perspective

Ok, so I have been very faithful to my exercise and eating very well.  I have seriously cut my portions down to half!  I have been eating small 100-300 calorie meals every 3 hours.  I feel so much better, I feel as though i’m moving around nicely.  Regardless, the scale hasn’t budged much, It has not been merciful nor forgiving of anything.  I have even cut out most drinks besides water, decreasing my personal daily calories by a minimum of 500! 

Ok, so I decided not to worry much bout the pounds because i could be gaining some muscle.  So after some weeks I took another picture and compared it last night.

…baffled…I just stared…my heart sunk…I turned off the monitor and headed to bed.  Dissapointed.

I honestly thought i was doing soooo good, better than I ever had been before, more motivation, more discipline.  It has been over a month, I figured something should show.

Strange thing is i can look at my body in the first person and I could swear that i see the difference. 

Regardless of what has taken place, i refuse to walk by what i see, or be moved by what has not happened.  I am determined to do this, and to walk by faith.  I WILL MAKE IT. 

I worked diligently at becoming obese, and so I will counter that work with efficiency, determination, dilligence, discipline, and a desire that nothing else in my life can match.

Even if i have to kick, scream, and cry through my workouts, I am gonna get there!

Today I noticed that I am moving around more freely.  I don’t feel as though I’m dragging around as much.  I feel loosened up and more flexible.  It is a great feeling, and a good motivator.  I hope those fighting to lose weight are being successful.  I sure feel like I am.  As alway though, I give all glory to God, and Jesus Christ.  I know that I have attacked my weight loss harder since I have asked him for help.  He is faithful.  The scale proves it, and so will my progress pictures. 

Best of luck to everyone! 

Anyone use Wii fit?

I actually bought this beast for my girlfriend, but find myself wrapped up in the competitiveness of it all!

They did a great job making it.  It has lots of neat games to play, exercises, strength, yoga, aerobics, etc.

Our whole family of 6 plays this.  Not only is it a blast but will seriously get you sweating!

If you can afford it, want to burn a hair more calories and have fun with loved ones, buy it!

So far I have managed to keep my motivation up by keeping my workouts interesting.  Where I may be partial to some exercises and less partial to others, I continue to do them all so I don’t get burned out.

First, there is running stadium stairs, second, Gym exercise with eliptical, stair climber, and bike.  Third, believe it or not, Biggest Loser DVD.  At first i scoffed at this DVD when my girlfriend was doing it.  One day she asked me to do it with her and I said OK.

I am hooked to it now because it seriously whipped my butt.  Something that causes my shirt to be soaked within 30-40minutes has got to accomplish something.  That DVD is no joke!

So there it is, I feel as if I have some variety to keep me from getting burned out. 

I have a feeling though, that in a week or so, a nice progress picture is going to be going up. 

So when i first got back into losing weight I went to the stadium to walk the track.  After walking the track and realizing that it probably wasn’t enough, I decided to up the intensity a hair.  I started walking one lap, followed by walking two stadium flights of stairs (36 stairs)  Each lap up to a mile i followed with 2 sets of stairs.  I remember breathing hard and thinking, "wow, this is rough." 

Then i realized the dedication others had, and i started facing my own whining and worries about hurting myself "hitting it so hard."  Wow, what a laugh I had at myself.  I realized i could do so much more!  Between each lap, i started running one set of stairs, and then walking 2 sets.  I was pretty impressed as now i was running a total of 4 out of the 12 sets of stairs.  Still i wasn’t satisfied.  I knew in my heart and mind that i could do so much more. 

I prayed, "God, give me the strength to make this happen.  Help me to rebuild this temple! I know I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me."  Prayer works, I now, within 2 weeks of the aforementioned workout, am running 16 sets of stairs.  After each lap, I run 4 sets of 36 stairs.  I am 29 years old, 260 pounds.  This is an accomplishment for me.  Sometimes we shortchange ourselves, and sometimes we need a little divine push as well.

Even when i weighed 180lbs, I was unable to to accomplish this much, which is why it seems to be so significant.

It appears that i have successfully dropped 10lbs in 2 months.  That doesn’t seem like enough but in all fairness i feel 10 lbs loss is what i deserve for the amount of work i have put into it! I am happy, i am feeling better, and as always it helps push me further. 

I was told that an airplane never stays on course from point a to point b, even on auto pilot.  The airplane is constantly in correction of it’s flight pattern and flys in a zig zag to it’s destination. 

Myself, similar to airplanes, am constantly re-evaluating my exercise routine, eating issues, etc.  I will make it to my goal, but alot of corrections will need to take place on the way.

Yesterday was extremely nice here in Missouri.  Instead of hitting the gym for some cardio, my bro and I figured it would be a great day for some basketball.  We had an excellent workout, lots of fun, and it helped mix up our weekly routine.  I think everyone should thrown in a few fun exercise days just to keep it interesting. 

I woke up in the middle of the night with a severe calf cramp.  I can never figure out what causes those, but they are seriously no fun!!!

Since we are moving this weekend, we have decided to hit the gym strong all week and take the weekend off, although moving is no light task and will prove to be its’ own workout. 

I have been exercising faithfully for almost 3 weeks.  I have been doing cardio, weight lifting, and have completely overhauled my diet to eat right.  My portions are much smaller during the day than they have to.  I have a very hard time replacing the cereal though! Cereal is great, i am almost convinced i am addicted to it.  Most days i replace it with a nice bowl of oatmeal. 

I feel better mentally and physically.  It is almost as if i feel much better than i actually look!  I have been drinking 2 protein shakes a day, and that seems to help alot.  Yesterday, i clearly did not want to go to the gym.  With an incredibly stressful week, and i mean one where i spent hours so worried that my heartrate was clocked at 120 without doing anything, i was worn down and then had to put in a full days work.  I knew that these were the times where I would know whether or not i was dedicated to my exercising.  I still mustered enough energy and motivation to make it to the gym for a great workout.  I felt so good and proud of myself afterwards as i usually do.  Once you get inside the doors to the gym, everything changes. 

I literally "pep" talk myself the whole time.  I am my own bestfriend and workout partner when i am at the gym.  Of course i have my brother there to help most of the time to be accountable.  He has done a great job with his motivation as well, and it helps me to continue.  We give each other good feedback, positive statements and even some critical ones along the way, but it is helping us get closer to our weight loss goals realistically.

I would encourage anyone out there who doesn’t have a workout partner, to be your own.  Count on yourself, reward yourself, and most importantly talk nice to yourself.  Get a good mp3 player to workout with, it really helps me!

I am waiting for the day, the week, and the months, where the fat starts to melt off.  I am no longer looking at starting a workout routine, i am looking at continuing a workout plan.  If you haven’t lately, verbally reward yourself for being involved in a workout plan, to having a goal for your life.  Don’t wait for someone else to compliment you, compliment yourself, take a few minutes just to take pride in what you have accomplished, whether it was a simple 30 minute exercise this morning, or replacing one bad meal, with a good one, or whether you overlooked a can of soda.  Whatever it is, soak up all the small accomplishments.  Trust me, it will help with motivation 

Stress -  early morning, small workout results, long drive to work with a long day ahead, LOTS to do!  All of these types of stress welcome temptation! Each one attempts to bully me into eating wrong and unhealthy.  I manage a Baskin Robbins, and i am constantly staring at some sort of incredible tasting treat including full flavored ice creams coming at me in many flavors, peanut butter cups that are readily available, cookie dough pieces, reeses pieces, cookies, cake, need i say more?!?!  However, avoiding it is not as hard as you would think, but on this particular day,as a group,  they seem to be luring me in.  So I rush to indulge on the M&M’s.  This could be my cheat day right? Maybe? NO! I won’t have it! Or,…yes i will, i will. I poured myself a small cup of M & M’s and sat down to my morning paperwork.  I glance over at the colorfully filled cup and just stared. 

I thought to myself…"Do i really want to ruin a great week of eating right and exercising?"  It was now me vs. the M & M’s! i continued to stare as their color appeared to get brighter and more tempting by the second.  I could imagine the taste of chocolate, and my mind was going through all the reasons why it be ok to eat them ALL!  I even considered justifying the action by telling myself i had worked very hard this week and i deserve a break, and that i should reward myself.  I stretched out my hand to the cup, and if you could picture the huge battle scenes like in Gladiator or The patriot, or in the Lord of the Rings, or movies like that where two huge armies suddenlty collide in battle…, I swear that must have been what happened in my head so i paused…and slowly i started retracting my arm…I had won!

 I withdrew my hand from the cup, and took the M & M’s back to where the came from.  I strutted to the refridgerator where i had a cold can of fruit waiting for me.  I busted it open and i reaped my reward for a weeks worth of hard work and an unimaginable encounter with temptation that I overcame!  As I eat my fruit now, i feel more rewarded and accomplished than ever.  This is my prize, this is what it comes down to, and for today, I am a winner!

Did you know? It would take you walking the full length of a football field to burn off 1 m&m!!!

Yesterday i hit the gym after work for an excellent and satisfying workout.  I have noticed though how time crunching it is trying to incorporate and good solid workout plan.  I spend about 1.5 hours at the gym.  I try to squeeze in a body part each day (chest, back, legs) and then add 20-30 minutes of cardio on top of it.  We usually push about 15 reps per set.  What i have noticed is that i tend to feel a little rushed in the workout.  It may be a good thing to feel rushed so that i don’t take too much rest between sets.  My main point is that i can understand how some people actually feel as though they do not have enough time to workout.  I really feel bad for these individuals.  I understand some use the time topic as an excuse but i think some people are legit in their dilemma.  It takes a good amount of time to get a great workout in, and i’m willing to give that time, but at some points i feel a bit guilty that i have the time to spend and others do not.  …I think it is almost time for some new pics.