Day 151 of 103in365 24/103

Hey There!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy Holidays!

It's New Years Eve tomorrow and that makes it "Resolution Time!"

As you might guess, I have some resolutions.

Before I get started though, I am thrilled to be down 2 LBS this week! It has been weeks since I have put up a loss, and it feels great! Christmas was great and it is not even that I made ANY big show of willpower. I did make a decision here and there that was smarter than I may have in past holidays, but I enjoyed myself. I was active from time to time too, but few real "workouts." At the end of the day, I did enough to lose 2 LBS which is much better than putting on lbs or staying the same!

Now on to the RESOLUTIONS!

I debated even making any official resolutions around 103in365, because resolutions tend to be something people, myself included, set at the beginning of the year as they are feeling hopeful about the upcoming new year and trying to capture some of that hope and turn it into real progress on things they are struggling with in their lives. The hic-up in the giddy-up with that is, the follow through is lacking so much of the time. I am speaking about myself, and from what I have heard and read about, I am also referencing the experience of millions of others too!

I read an article on CNN about resolutions today. I was inspired by it, as was their intent, to look at resolutions differently this year. The article's author, Jacque Wilson, shares this:

          "Good health happens when the physical, emotional and social or environmental parts of our                   lives are in balance," said Dr. Amy Crawford-Faucher, a family physician at the University                     of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "When people resolve to 'lose weight,' they are actually saying, 'I             want to feel and look better.' "

The article then goes on to suggest to then set resolutions that are not just about what you will give up or do strictly to "lose weight" but rather to feel better with the understanding that many things that help us to feel better, translate into helping us look better too.

Based some on the article and some from my own brain, here are my resolutions for 2014!

1) Get more fresh air.

          I will do this my spending more time doing outside activities such as walking, hiking, biking and

          and playing with my kids. More time getting fresh air and doing outside activities like these and

          others, will lead to more balance, less stress, more fun, good companionship and being                         healthier!

2) Spend more time doing things and less time stressing about doing things.

          That might sound funny at first, but I know you know what I am talking about. Sometimes the

          thoughts around avoiding the things we don't want to do but may have to do or need to do, can

          be more stressful than actually doing that thing. This year, I am vowing to make more "To-Do"

          lists and just hammer through them instead of putting things off and then stressing because they

          are not getting done. This will definitely help me feel less stress and be happier!

3) Sleep more.

          I don't get enough sleep and I don't get enough sleep! This affects every aspect of my life. I

          know that I need to prioritize sleep, my doctors have told me I need to prioritize sleep and yet,

          just like when I was a kid, I think it boils down to "I don't want to miss anything." If I stay up, I

          won't miss as much. This is subconscious most of the time of course, but I think it is real for me.

          This year I will prioritize sleep and remind myself that I will have more energy and be more alert

          and take more opportunities to exercise and move and make better food choices and feel less

          of the aches and pains and be happier! That is a lot of things that just more sleep can bring. That

          is worth "missing" some late night things for!

Take away for this week: Maybe try taking a different angle at your New Years Resolutions this year. Focus on what is going to bring you more balance and help you to feel healthier! Other goals and aspirations we have are more likely to happen if our lives are in BALANCE. This is why I have always been drawn to the Yin-Yang symbol. Balance is just about the most important thing in life. Maybe the most important. Figure out what is standing in your way from obtaining more balance in your life and start knocking them down!

Have a great week and Happy New Year!!

Scuba

Day 142 of 103in365 22/103

Hey There,

I am posting late this week. Sorry.

I did not lose any lbs this week but I did stop the backwards slip! It is Friday and I have not weighed myself since Monday, so I don't know where I am at today.

I am still having a hard time getting back into the gym. Turns out, I can come up with a lot of excuses that make it easier not to go. I wish I was not as good at doing that.

I am eating better, but not as good as I need to. I was on such a roll in October. I need to get back to what I was doing then. Green smoothies in the mornings, a real breakfast, a healthy lunch, little to no between meal eating and no carbs at diner. Also working out at least 5 times a week.

That is what I am going to get back to. I feel like I am making more proclamations that I am losing lbs. That is not a good thing. I will work on that!

Next week is Christmas! I plan to enjoy the time with family and the reasons for the season. I hope you do too!!!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 132 of 103in365 22/103

Hey There!

I am going in the wrong direction here!

It turns out that just having a blog where you say that you are going to lose 103 lbs is not enough to lose 103 lbs.

It has been a struggle lately. It has been a struggle for a handful of weeks to be more accurate. I can not put my finger on any one thing that has become any more difficult recently.

I have been lacking consistent followthrough and that is about the size of it. I am suffering from a case of a good plan and inconstant implementation.

To be honest, I have been struggling so much with motivation recently, that I wanted to skip my
blog this week. I made a commitment to blog every week this year though, and I am going to stick to that commitment. I am really glad I said I would do that, because it may very well be the difference this time. This time I can't let a temporary backslide turn into a big old backslide. I guess it could happen, but I would have to write about it every week and I really don't want to do that.

I am going to make positive progress this week. I want to work up to doing 6 workouts a week, but this week I am going to aim my sights at half of that goal. I am committing to 3 good workouts this week. I am going to go back to working out before work. That worked really well in October when I lost more than 10 lbs. I am going to go back to what was so recently working.

I am going to focus on getting those 3 workouts in, and I will report next week.

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 121 of 103in365 24/103

Hey There,

Up 3 lbs this week ...again. 

Enough talking.

If I want something different, I need to do something different!

This week I am going to do just that! 

I will tell you all about it next week! 

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 114 of 103in365 27/103

Hey There!

It was a better week for yours truly. I dropped those 2 LBS that I put back on. That's good. I am still really struggling to be consistent again though. That's not so good.

I did enough this week to drop a few, although there is still much work that needs to be done. If I do what I have been doing for the past two weeks, I am not going to be successful. I can not be trading lbs back and forth here. 

On a scale of 1-10, I turned it back up to about 6.5 this week, but I need to be functioning pretty consistently at 9, with occasional visits to 10-ville! I also need this one to go to 11 sometimes too! I can't function always at 11 without burning out, but I need to spike up there from time to time.

I have been wavering in my intensity, and I need to get, what Dave Ramsey calls, Gazelle intense! Dave talks about intensity specifically in getting yourself out of debt and building wealth. I generalize his concept to just about anything. Here though, I am referring to the intensity I need to have,  to get and stay fit! (If you have not read any of Dave's books or listened to his radio show, you should. I think he's a genius!)

Sometimes, Dave talks about cheetahs and gazelles. The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth. As fast as 70 to 75 mph at top speed. Cheetahs love to eat gazelles. They hunt them and you would think they get them most of the time, being MUCH faster and all. Here's the hic-up in the giddy-up. Most of the time, the gazelle gets away. Gazelles have learned that the cheetahs strength is running in straight-line and gazelles bob and weave and run in circles so the cheetah gets tiered and gives up the dream. The gazelle is crazy intense because if the cheetah catches it, it is lunch. It runs like its life depends on it, because it does!

That is intensity!

I appreciate that you read my blog because this blog keeps me motivated. I do not like reporting to all of you that I did not lose weight any given week, or worse, like last week, that I gained. I get all jazzed up to report that I am feeling fitter and that I am dropping LBS! I value this blog and I hope you get something out of it too.

This week, I am going to remind myself that I need to get Gazelle Intense! I will not succeed in my goal unless I do!.

Take away for this week: Take stock in the intensity in which you are going after your goals. If your intensity fluctuates, as mine has been doing, your results with fluctuate too. It takes courage to be able to say, "Am I not working hard enough on this?" Be sure to  pat yourself on the back for the hard work you are doing, then find out what is in your way of being Gazelle Intense and jack up your intensity. Make sure you are Gazelle Intense in a way that is fun, or you will quickly become Cheetah Kibble. I, for one, have no interest in being kibble. I choose to bob and weave like my life depends on it. In some real ways, it does.

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 109 of 103in365: 25/103

Hey There!

I am up 2 lbs this last week. I am not getting down about that, in fact, getting down is the topic of the week.

This week did not go well, obviously. I am looking back at what contributed to falling backward. I slid backwards down the ice (reference to last week's metaphor) and this moment is about pulling out my pickaxe, slamming it into the ice and stopping my decent. I have been thinking today about what I need to do differently this week. I have decided to look back as much as it is helpful to learn from this past week, then violently turn back around and face this week with even more determination.

I am going to make a few changes this week, and this is the biggest one.

Weigh myself only on Mondays.

Recently, I have been weighing myself almost everyday and my mood and excitement about being more healthy that day is linked too much to what the scale says. Weighing myself everyday has been a Lose/Lose thing for my lately. If it looks like my weight is going down, I am really happy and sometimes don't do what I need to do that day since I am doing so well. If it looks like my weight has not changed or is going up, I sometimes don't do what I need to do that day since I am doing so poorly. I get bummed and some or a lot of the wind is taken out of my sails. This has not been helpful and I am making a change as of today.

I am going to focus other important factors and the weight will follow. I am going to focus on how good I am feeling, how my clothes are fitting, how easy it feels to get up out of a chair or up off the floor, how much I am moving around and working out and how closely I am following the Skinny Rules.

These are going to be my focus going forward. I am excited and motivated! (two things I was struggling with before I wrote today's entry)

Take away for this week: Don't get too down on yourself when you slip up or slid backwards a bit. The important thing is not that you slid but that you do not keep sliding and learn from the slip. Henry Ford said "Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them." I for one am tiered of going around my weight and the things that make me feel unmotivated and unhealthy. I have become, as many overweight people have, very good at going around those kinds of problems and finding ways to not think about them. I am becoming someone that is amazing at solving the problems once and for all so that they are not in my way, not because I have found ways to not think about them, but because they do not exist.

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 103 of 103in365: 27/103

Hey There!

It is day 103 in 103in365! That's kinda fun.

I lost 3 LBS this week. Another 3 bite the dust! That puts me down 27 LBS to date!

121 days and change will mark that I am 1/3 of the way through my 365 day journey. That brings a bit of perspective to the table for sure. I am at a good pace right now, and if I continue more or less like this, I will be hitting my goals.

I have been thinking about sliding and pickaxes this week.

This is where the sliding fits in. I have been thinking about how I catastrophize sometimes after I eat in a way that I shouldn't and/or am not as active and moving as I need to be.  Maybe you do this too.   Sometimes I get down on myself with negative self-talk and then throw the rest of the day or week away and/or continue the negative slide until I a
m even further away from my goals than before the slide began.

Here is where the pick axes come in. One of the skills I have been working on is stopping the negative slide like a climber on Everest might stop a downhill slide. They might grab their pickaxe and jam it into the ice to stop their decent so that they can re-establish their footing and so that they can carry on making uphill progress to the summit.

A pickaxe for me has become a symbol that reminds me that I am in control and I have the right tools to stop the backward slide from turning into a devastating setback. I can use those skills to regain my footing and get back on track as fast as possible, knowing and accepting that I will slide again and use my pickaxe then too.

To slide is human, to pickaxe is divine.

My Everest summit is losing 103 lbs and just like a climber on Everest, I have given myself a finite amount of time to reach my goal and I can't afford to be sliding backwards willy nilly. I need to keep my eyes on the summit and continue to run, walk and crawl my way to my goals.

Take away for this week: You should expect that you will slide from time to time. Being imperfect as we are, we are not going to do things perfectly each time and everyday. If we expect that the slide will happen even though we are putting all our effort into avoiding it, we can be prepared and quickly grab our pickaxes and use them to regain control and get back on track towards our goals. Remind yourself that you are powerful and you are able to stay committed and reach your goals. We will slide and it is our response to the slide that will make all the difference. Use your pickaxes!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 96 of 103in365: 24/103

Hey There!

It was a "stall week" this week. No loss and no gain. I may not be a rocket scientist (although I may or may not play one on TV) but I have gotten to the root of the problem.

This week, I did not act like wanted to lose 103 lbs. That is pretty much it.

My fat voice pulled out the old "job well done, now rest" card. (I hate it when it does that. I hate it even more when I listen to it)  Good new and bad news about that. Good: I did not listen to it entirely and still did about 68% of what I need to be doing food wise to be healthy and lose the lbs, and did not hit the soda or the fast food. Bad: I did not do any formal workouts and was not as active as I should have been and I ate the way I need to not be eating 32% of the time.

This week is already different. I have been eating the right way all day, up from 68%. Don't get me wrong. I am happy with 68% is some ways. Just doing that helped it be a stall week and not a gain week. I would rather stall than gain, but I would rather lose than stall or gain. I also worked out today, which was better for my positivity than I even thought it would be.

Tomorrow I am starting back on my "before work" workouts. Those really get my day started off right, and are worth getting up earlier for. You know what they say, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a Scuba happier, fitter and wise." I think that is what they say anyway. If they don't say that, they should. 

Take away for this week: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Even if you have not been doing everything you need to be doing to reach your goals, be sure to pay attention to the things you have been doing right and build on them. Focusing on just having not done everything you should have done is not going to lead to feeling positive about yourself, and you are not going to be successful unless you believe you are a Rock Star. Be positive, build on accomplishments and look in the mirror and remind yourself that you are a ROCK STAR! Now get out there and rock it!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 88 of 103in365: 24/103

Hey There!

Another week in the books and another 3 LBS in the books too!

This was a really stressful week for yours truly. I did things a bit differently in response to the stress than is my norm, and thus still lost 3 LBS instead of gaining or staying the same.

Thing the first.

I did not comfort myself with unhealthy food.

This is a big deal for me. My normal response to stress for most of the past 15 to 20 years is to hit the drive through, get a pizza, drink my weight in soda or pick one or more of any number of my goto unhealthy behaviors. Instead, I more or less stuck to the rules I have been following (Bob's Skinny Rules) and did not have soda or fast food and ate almost exclusively healthy food. (Total disclosure: I may have had one corndog and one homemade donut on Saturday, but that was it! Honest!)

Thing the second.

I moved around instead of sitting around.

Now, I did not do as many workouts as I had wanted to, but I was active more than my previous norm and I did not sit around waiting to forget my stress or for things to magically get less stressful. I worked out alone and with others, and moved.

Thing the third.

I reached out for support.

I am generally pretty good at asking others for support and advice, but this week I purposefully sought the council of more than one friend and planfully spent more concentrated quality time talking things out with my amazing wife. Through their support, especially my wife’s, by Saturday things smoothed over and now, as the kids say down at the schoolyard, “It’s all good!”

They say to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Loving stuff like that as I do, I like to generalize that concept to other contexts in my life outside of employment. I tell myself that I need to act like the man I want to be in the future, not the man I may have been in the past. I also tell myself that I need to act, make decisions and respond to life like a person who has the body and the fitness level that I want to have, not the body and fitness level that I have right now. I have said this in the past and I will say it again. I need to act and think like a fit person, not a fat person. I need to listen to the fit voice, not the fat voice.

(Digression) There are some people that say, they are fine with being overweight or “fat”.  This may indeed be true. It also may instead be that they have accepted what they do not think they have the ability, motivation or courage to change. I have never been one of those people to say that I was “all good” with being fat. It is only recently that I have dug deep and found my motivations, my abilities and the courage to do something about it. If I can do it, then anyone can do it! If you are really truly OK with being large, then that is your right. More realistic though, is that you are not truly OK with it. You simply must find a way(s) to dig deep and figure out how to get something different for yourself. I had to start a blog and make big goals. I had to seek out exponentially more accountability than I have ever had in my life. Ultimately, I am just taking it day by day. I know you have the courage and ability to find out what you need to do! All that being said, I believe it distills down to what Stephen King wrote, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

Take away for this week: Bob Dylan said, “Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act.” Thanks Mr. Dylan. That is another way to say what I have been trying to say. Another oldie but goodie is, “If I do what I have always done, I will get what I have always gotten. If I want something different, I have to do something different.” That is not a Dylan quote, but it is still one that I tell myself almost everyday. When I try to talk myself out of working out or I try to talk myself into being OK with eating how I know I should not eat, I tell myself that quote and make myself chose if I want something different or not. It is not about the two or three more significant choices we make every week, but rather the hundreds of little ones we make constantly.  One way to measure if you are likely to get closer or further from you goals, is to take note of not how often declare you want something different, but how often you act like you want something different. 

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 82 of 103in365: 21/103

Hey There!

Another LB down! Just 1 this past week, but I will take any LBS in the downward direction!

I wanted to talk about some goals this week. Goals in general and then I wanted to put my current goals for 103in365 out there.

Without goals to work towards, sometimes it is easy to feel like we are just pealing out or just doing the same things over and over again and just getting the same things over and over again. Sometimes, both of those are true. Goals give us something to reach for and focus on as we try to better ourselves.

"Keep your eye on the prize" is a phrase most people have heard before. To me it means that when we lose focus, hope or feel overwhelmed, we can get perspective again and become refocused by shifting our thoughts and efforts back toward our goals. The prize could be just about anything that we want. For me it is health and fitness, specifically through the losing of 103 LBS!

You already know my main goal here. It is the title of this blog and I give you my progress towards that goal in the title of every post. Big goals are great, but we are exponentially more likley to reach them if we set and acheive smaller goals along the way. Planning out smaller goals also provides us specific times to assess and celebrate our progress and it can also be a time to make adjustments that can lead to even more success.

Here are some smaller "milestone" goals I have right now. I want to be 40 LBS down by Christmas, for starters. That means I have 63 days to lose 19 lbs. Since Christmas is only 9 weeks away, I need to average just a Cheerio more than 2 lbs a week. Totally realistic, but not easy. It is going to take commitment and I am ready. I am excited for this goal specifically because at 40 lbs down, I will surpass the most I lost in 103in365 round 1. That will feel really good to get there!

At that point, I will be 5 months in with only 7 months to go until August 1, 2014. More or less, I need to lose an average of 2 lbs a week for every week until then. The good news is I can sometimes lose more than that in a week. The bad news is, I cannot do that very often, so I really need to focus on a steady and slow burn.

To achieve that much progress in the remaining roughly 9 months , I will need to focus on the fundamentals that I set out with in the first place. Namely, having fun so that I can stay invested in the process! This is one of the big things that I have not always had in previous attempts to lose the weight.  I need to focus on the day to day journey and not get caught up or overwhelmed with the 82 lbs I have left. If I do what I need to do and what I have been doing, the weight loss will follow!

Take away for this week: Ernest Hemingway said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”  Keep your eye on the prize, but also don't forget to look around and find (or create) enjoyment during the journey too!


Have a great week!


Scuba

Day 75 of 103in365: 20/103

Hey There!

So that number on the blog title is finally growing again and has grown for the past 2 weeks!

Another Weigh-In Monday in the books and I lost another 3LBS this week! That makes an even 20 since I began Round 2 on August 1!

This week I worked out a bunch. I woke up and did a workout before work a few days, and did a few after work workouts too. It is getting easier, as I knew it would because it did last time, to get myself exercising once I get started. (I guess technically, most things are easier to do once you start doing them, since at that point you are actually doing them.) For me, once I get into a routine of making exercise a part of most days of the week, I notice I really miss it on days that I "take off." I guess that is a good indication that I am enjoying my workouts too.

Since so much of getting fit and staying fit is about what we eat, from time to time I am going to share a recipe that is helping me to eat healthier. I will not share anything that I am also not really enjoying as well. We are so less likely to do things and eat things that are good for us if we are not enjoying ourselves. Part of this journey I am on is figuring out how to get and stay healthy and fit and have fun doing it!

This week's recipe is a simple one and one that we have been eating a couple times a week for the past few weeks. This is most times the only side we have with our dinner. You can eat a lot of this since it is healthy.

Sesame Grilled Green Beans

Fresh Green Beans
Sesame Seeds
Sesame Oil
Olive Oil
Soy Sauce

Take the fresh green beans and cook them with a splash of olive oil in a frying pan. After the green beans start to shrivel up and/or blister, add a dash of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. (try low sodium soy sauce or some other soy sauce replacement to make it even healthier.) Stir all that together and then add some sesame seeds. Serve and Enjoy!

I like to get them off the fire before they get completely soft. I like them al dente  ("to the tooth" in Italian.) This is also sometimes described as cooking something until it is "tender crisp" which is different than not cooking it all the way.

In case you missed it, I exercised my brilliance just over 9 years ago when I married my amazing wife, who also happens to be a chef! I learn a lot of tips and tricks in the kitchen from her, and I will share some ideas from time to time.

Take away for this week: Keep finding new ways to make and keep it fun! Also, keep finding new ways to make and keep it healthy and tasting good! Take some time to learn about and try out some healthy recipes. Going about cooking some of the same things you already are cooking a different way has the potential to make them even more tasty and healthy!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 67 of 103in365: 17/103

Hey There!

So I am retro naming (and yes, I can do that) last week "Money Where Your Mouth Is Week!"

I put it there and I lost 4 LBS this week! That's right 4 LBS! That officially drops my under the 300 lb mark. I was there earlier this year and then went back. This time I am never going back. 

It was what is to become a normal week for me, but it was not the way I have been recently spending my weeks. Here is were some of the differences.

For starters, I worked out 6 out of the last 7 days! 2 workouts after work, 3 workouts before work and 1 workout at home. I am pretty gosh darn (excuse my language) proud of that fact. I am going to do that again this week!

Next, I put some real effort into planning what and how much I was eating and not eating "dinner 2." 

Another thing is following "The Skinny Rules" more closely. I am not doing all 20 of them yet and I am only doing about half the ones I am doing all the way. I have been working on doing about 10 of them for now, and adding more in incrementally. 

I feel better about my journey today than I did this time last week. I was beginning to feel  discouraged that I had not been losing a lot of weight and feeling like I was getting my PHD in "The Talk" but still in junior high when in came to "The Walk."  Now I feel I am really on my way and I hope to have my PHD in "The Walk" in 10 short months!  Nike did not make their slogan "Just Talk About It" Uncle Phil says "Just Do It" for a reason. "Talk" is easy,"doing" takes effort and dedication. All the talk in the world is not going to lose me another 86 lbs. Only by stopping just talking about it and getting off my duff and doing it is going to lose me another 86 lbs. So stopping just talking about it and getting off my duff is what I shall do!

Take Away for the Week: I found a great quote from Colin Powell. He said, "Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty and persistence." I like this quote a lot. I love specifically that he puts so much emphasis on hard work, learning from failure and persistence. Without those three, success is really not likely to happen. We are more likely to just be hoping for success and talking about success and not getting any closer to having success. I found another great quote this week. This one is from Scuba. It goes "Get off your duff!"

Have a great week,

Scuba

Day 63 of 103in365: 13/103

Hey There!

So (ellipsis) no progress on the scale this week.

Here's the hic-up in the giddy-up for last week, if you will and I hope you do.  (I have already made significant improvements on this for this week BTWs)

This problem goes by different names. A fast food chain is currently calling it "4th meal." A few weeks back I called it "dinner 2." Whatever you call it, it is eating when you should be going to bed.

One of Bob Harper's Skinny Rules is "Go to Bed Hungry." That is one that I am focusing on this week. I am also really working towards "No Carbs after Lunch." (I did it today)

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to (so I did) go to bed full or almost full. It has always felt comforting and even if mostly psychological, it seems to help me to fall asleep. There is maybe a bit of truth to that, but most of it is in my head, I think.

I have been very successful in the past not eating past dinner or eating just a bit of lean protein if I was very hungry. That is what I am doing this week.

I am sure it makes sense to everyone that this is a good idea. Mostly it makes sense that our bodies do not burn off much of those calories, because we are sleeping. Then our bodies just stow those calories away for a rainy day. I am trying to tell my body that every day is that rainy day and that it needs to burn all that it has stowed and stop stowing more!

This week I am also working out every day. (I did not work out Monday however. That's my Fun Day. My I don't have to run day.) I did work out the past two days and I will do some sort of working out each of the remaining four days. (there I wrote it, so I have to do it! If I do not, may millions of sugarplums dance non-stop in my head for the next 7 years!) (I dont even like sugarplums, so I can not have them doing a perpetual cha-cha.)

It is October 2. My goal for this month is to lose 8 lbs by November 1. Totally doable goal, but those 8 lbs are not going to lose themselves. I need to lose an average of 9 lbs every month for the next 10 months to reach my goal. That is totally doable, but I need to get off my culo and make it happen everyday! Challenge Accepted!

Take away for this week: Continue to have the courage to face the barriers that are threatening to keep you from success! What defines us is what we do with those barriers and how we overcome them, no matter how long we have allowed them to keep us away from our goals. Take 2 barriers this week and do them at least Half as much. Just at least Half as much this week. After you start seeing and feeling the difference from that, you can figure out how to take it the rest of the way!

Rome was not built in a day, and real change is not determined by what we are able to accomplish in a day.

Have a good week!

Scuba

Day 55 of 103in365: 13/103

Hey There!

Let me get right to the point! I lost 2LBS this week doing just what I said I would do last week!

I worked out 5 days and ate better and smarter than I had done any week in the past 6 months!

I am pretty happy and proud and it was really great to see the needle on the scale go down this week! 2 LBS more down and I am back on my way!

This week I got into Bob Harper's book "The Skinny Rules." If you have ever seen The Biggest Loser, you have probably seen Bob. He is one of the trainers and coaches on the show. This book is great so far (I have not finished it yet) and the premiss is that he is providing 20 simple rules that if done for the rest of your life, will get you skinny and keep you skinny.

He does not give any rules that are extreme or that are not healthy to do everyday. Some of them are tough and some of them are really straight forward and obvious. There is really not much of anything in the rules that most people have not heard of and most people would agree are things you need to do to get and stay thin. Here they are:

1. Drink a large glass of water before every meal - No Excuses.
2. Don't drink your calories.
3. Eat protein at every meal - or stay hungry and grouchy.
4. Slash your intake of refined flours and grains.
5. Eat 30 to 50 grams of fiber a day.
6. Eat apples and berries every single day. Every single day!
7. No Carbs after lunch.
8. Learn to read food labels so you know what you are eating.
9. Stop guessing about portion sizes and get it right - for good.
10. No more added sweetners, including artificial ones.
11. Ger rid of those white potatoes.
12. Make one day a week Meatless.
13. Get rid of fast foods and fried foods.
14. Eat a real breakfast.
15. Make your own food and eat at least ten meals a week at home.
16. Banish high-salt foods.
17. Eat your vegetables - Just Do It!
18. Go to bed hungry.
19. Sleep right.
20. Plan one splurge meal a week.

He states that these rule are nonnegotiable, and also realizes that most people will not be able to or not be willing to follow all of them right away. He advises a "step down" approach to help you "move away from an old behavior and toward and new, healthy one a little at a time."He states that this is only a temporary step and you should work towards living all the rules the whole way.

About half of the book takes each rule and breaks it down for you. He explains why it is a rule and how to follow it. The rest of the book is sample menus and lots of sample recipes that meet all the Skinny Rules.

I have not made any of the recipes yet, but I am excited to and I will share how they work out.

My workouts were great this past week and I mixed in some cardio and some high rep weights with every workout. The longest I worked out at one time was 30 minutes last week and my goal is to do that again this week too. Since I am doing weigh-in Mondays again, I am considering a "week" to be Monday through Sunday. (pretty standard, really.)

That means that I am already 2 workouts into my 5 workouts for this week, as I have worked out both yesterday morning and this morning! 

Take away for this week: Check out "Skinny Rules" by Bob Harper. So far, it really makes a ton of sense to me and he puts just about everything you need to be doing for the rest of your life into one list and into simple to understand terms. We may not want to impose more rules on our lives, but sometimes just telling ourselves that I am going to eat this and not eat that or do this and not do that, is easier to do if I can default to "I am going to do this because it is a rule and it makes sense and I want something different so I am going to do something different!" Try something different this week! Newsflash! You will get something different and it just might be amazing and just what you have needed!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 47 of 103in365: 11/103

Hey There!

47 days into 365 now and I must report that I did not go up or down in lbs this week.

"What's the deal Scuba?" you might be asking.

Herein lives the deal.

I was talking to one of my friends and biggest supporters this week about my blog and about weight loss. He himself has lost a great deal of weight this year and is a big inspiration and support for me. He was giving me feedback about my blog and said something really thought provoking for me. He said, "I am really enjoying your blog. Specifically right now, I am noticing that your are talking about getting fired up, and you just are not there yet. I am looking forward to seeing when that switch is flipped for real again and you become ready to really do what you need to do."

I was not sure what to say to that at first, but I quickly realized his point. And he was right!

I have been excited to be back at my blog and lbs loss again, and feeling good about the first 11 lbs being off, but I have not gone "all in" yet and have not been ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

"All in" is a poker term not all of you may be aware of. It is what a poker player says when they are willing to bet all their remaining chips or cash on their current hand. It means they are committed and they realize if they lose the hand, they might be out of the game or tournament. This is a serious statement in poker and if you say "I'm all in" at the wrong time you are probably "All done."

"The road to failure is paved with good intentions," is a variation of an old proverb. This quote is important for me this week, because without follow through, all my good intentions about losing this weight are going to lead to failure. (Again) With follow through however, and with an "I'm All In!" attitude and then its corresponding actions, I will be successful and I WILL lose all the the weight I want!

I have a new and "strength-based" version of that old proverb. Here it goes!

"The road to success is paved with committed follow through!"

Take away for this week: Are you ready to say "I am ALL in" and "I will do whatever it takes to be successful!" I know I am, and I know I have to be if I am going to get this 103 lbs off by next August. (And I am going to get it off, BTW!) This week, figure out what is holding you back from being "all in" and being ready to do whatever it takes. Identify the barriers that are in between you and your goals, and get to busting them down! I have been doing that for the past few days and now I can honestly and confidently say "I AM ALL IN!"

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 40 of 103in365: 11/103

Hey There!

It is Day 40 of 365 and I am down 1 more LB.1 LB down is better than 1 LB up!

11 LBS down and only 92 LBS to go!

Piece of cake! Ok probably not a piece of cake, especially if there is a significant number of cake pieces involved.

I will be one of the first 3 to admit that I need to step up my game if I am going to do this thing. No lbs a week, or only 1 lb a week, is not going to cut it, Chester! (if that even is your real name)

I have been making a classic blunder and enjoying the feeling of being back on the “wagon,” enjoying the feeling of being down these first handful of lbs and feeling over accomplished and not doing everything I know I need to be doing everyday!

I went for 1 bike ride this past week and did a mediocre job, at best, of watching my intake. (come on Chester!)

This week marks my departure from such silly things! As I re-read my post from last week, I re-recognize and acknowledge that there is no time like the present to put new habits into action and minimize and/or eventually extinguish some long-standing unhealthy habits. Goodbye cheeseburgers for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dinner 2 the sequel! (dinner is back and this time it’s hungry!) Hello healthier foods and healthy portions and more moving around! I can still have a “reasonably sized” cheeseburger from time to time, (5% or less of the time) if I am doing what I need to be doing the other 95% of the time.

This 5% vs 95% theory of weight-loss will not work if you are getting them backwards … turns out. Sorry, but you are not going to lose a bunch of weight eating like you are living through the zombie apocalypse and the only way to defeat the zombies is to eat all the cheeseburgers before they do, and then the last 5% of the time, eat a bean sprout and cup of water and proclaim “Mission Accomplished!”(though for the record and all things being equal, if that kind of zombie apocalypse really does happen, call me cause I would be a valuable member of the that team!)

So here’s one of the things I am going to do different this week. I am making some public commitments. I am committing to at least 4 workouts before next Monday. I am also going to start back on some of the things I was doing before, which were focusing on:

1)    Activities that are fun for me! (bike, speed bag, wing chun dummy, martial arts, boxing drills, walking, etc.)

2)    For the most part, doing 1/3 cardio and 2/3 weight training.

3)    Keeping most workouts fairly short so I have to make them count and also so that I might have the energy to do more than one shorter workout a day.

If you want, you can make reference to the entry I made on 12/17/12 during round 1 of 103in365. It was round 1’s day 78 of 365. I talked about an article that I read in October of 2012, which was one of the catalysts for the way I am going about this thing here. This is a link to that post, and in that post, there is a link to that aforementioned article. (That link still works as of the writing of today’s post)

http://103in365.blogspot.com/2012/12/day-78-of-103in365-weigh-in-monday-33103.html

Sometimes I think of this time around as round 2. It is not always possible to get the job done in round 1! I cannot think of any great boxer who always finished the bout in the 1^st round. Sometimes it even took many rounds. I am going to finish the job in the 2^nd round, but I am under no illusion that I am better than Ali or Marciano. They could have cleaned my proverbial clock before they had breakfast!

Take away for this week: If you don’t get the job done (whatever the job at hand is) in the 1^st round, remember you are in good company and there is almost always a round 2! This week might just be the week to hit the old “reset” button on a goal that you have fallen short on, and restart with even more focus, courage and commitment! When life gives us the not so guaranteed round 2 opportunity, let alone even more rounds, we need to get even better at taking advantage of them and setting back off towards our goals! 

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 33 of 103in365: 10/103

Hey There!

It is day 33 of 365. It has only been a few days since my last entry, but I want to get a bit synched up to Weigh-In Mondays. My commitment is to blog every week and my plan is to blog most weeks on Monday or Tuesday. (Just FYI)

So weigh-in Monday showed no negative and no positive progress in the good fight, but that being said, I did not expect much since I just weighed in and blogged only a few days ago.

I have been thinking about how much I can not and will not spend much time during these remaining 11 months stalled out or going backwards. To insure I do not so this, I have been reminding myself of such sayings as “Anything worth doing is worth working hard for” and “If you want something different you have to do something different” and “Success or Happiness is made up of many small victories.” (Even though I put all three of those sayings in quotes, I am paraphrasing them from my memory. Sorry, I know that is not really how quotes work.)(And you can quote me on that!)

I have been spending a good deal of time thinking specifically about an Aristotle quote that I ran into earlier this year and that I share with the young people that I have the privilege of working with. The quote goes a little something like this, (hit it!)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

I love this quote because he is saying that it is our habits that are the biggest determining factor of our success or Excellence, and as such, our daily decisions add up to our excellence or our lack there of.

I LOVE THAT! That is just another wise person from history who knew and shared with whoever would listen, that your happiness and your success and your feelings of fulfillment are a product of your many decisions and habits and not the responsibility of anyone else. Just yourself. This also means that we are not victims of the will of others in times of unhappiness and when we are feeling unfulfilled. We are in the drivers seat and if we have the courage to take action, we can have all the success and Excellence we want and deserve.

Take away for this week: It is on us to take stock of the situations in our lives and what has led us to those things, and here is the most important part, take accountability and DO something about it! Not all at once, necessarily, but one daily decision at a time and by working to change one habit at a time too!

Have a great week!

Scuba

Day 30 of 103in365: 10/103

Hey There!

It is day 30 of 365 and I stayed the same weight this week. No lb loss, no lb gain.

I find this to be pretty good news considering that we went on a 5 day road trip (two of those driving for 12 or more hours) and I ate In and Out Burger twice as well as little physical activity.

As I wrote in an earlier entry, I believe that it is what we do 95% of the time and much less about what we do 5% of the time. When you are on vacation, be on vacation. Don’t drink bacon all day, but enjoy your 5% as long as it really stays at 5%.

I have been thinking about a lot this week, but perhaps the most prevalent thought I have had is about how I think about food.

I love food, and maybe, as least for the duration of this journey I am on here, I need to spend more time (like 95% of the time) thinking of food as fuel. In the 5%, I can think about food as whatever I want.

I tend to think of food, as many overweight people do, as comfort, a stress reducer and mood elevator. There is not anything inherently wrong with food being those things for most people, but for me, that kind of thinking is on the list of reasons why I am big. Maybe that is the same for you too.

I have had a lot of success in my life when I have treated food as fuel that I need to keep going and to give me the energy I need to make it through the day and exercise too. This is not a new concept of course, but one that I think some of us forget sometimes. Our kids, specifically the one that eats real food and not just food you can drink but the one that chews food, eats almost entirely healthy foods. Lots of vegetables and fruits and a appropriate amount of proteins. We are teaching him, the other one will get it soon, to eat healthy foods and portions.

We put similar effort into what and how much our dog eats too, for crying out loud! I ask myself often why I do not spend the effort consistently to make sure that I am eating the right foods and the right portions. Why am I not practicing what I am preaching to the little Scubas and to the Scuba-pooch?

I mentioned last week that in the past 6 months I went back to doing what I have done in much of my adult life, and that is too take care of whatever I needed to, but to put myself and specifically my own eating and exercise habits last or almost last. This is a losing paradigm and I am smart enough to know that, yet I still do it for crying off a cliff!

I have said it before and I will say it again. I am too smart to be this fat! I am not even trying to say that I am some kind of genius. (not overtly at least) I am just saying that like most heavy folk, I know how to not be heavy, I just have not been good or consistent at doing what I need to do.

This is all changing folks! For starters, today I walked for at least 2 hours. Tomorrow has more walking in store and maybe some weights for the first time in months.

Wait what is that I see? Oh that’s right. It is the other side of a leaf and I like what I see!!

Take away for this week. This week, know that you are too smart to not be working towards your goals and having crazy amounts of success! Do whatever you need to do to convince yourself of this FACT and start, restart or continue on your way to a better you!

Scuba

Day 19 of 103in365: 10/103

Hey There!

I’m back!

Its day 19 of 365. (allow me to explain)

Things don’t always go the way we planned. (News Flash) One of the big differences between success and failure, is what we do when things don’t go the way we planned.

It has been several months since we have last met in the blogosphere. Much has happened.

To start things off, I lost one of my very best friends of 25 years to cancer in March. I have not had an easy go at working with that, and I did not have an easy go while it was happening.

I have been struggling with how to write about his death, and last months leading up to his death. I got back into some bad eating habits and infrequent workouts while traveling to see him frequently in the last few months of his life. Staying up on my progress with my weight-loss and this blog ended up being more than I was ready for.

My friend was amazing! He accomplished an astounding amount in his 39 years. He lived more in 39 years than many live in 100 years. He was very supportive of my weight-loss and was a reader of this blog. He gave me positive encouragement and support, not just for 103in365 but for the entire 25 years we were friends! I miss him terribly and also remember the conversations we had earlier this year about how proud he was of me and how much happier and healthier he knew I was going to be because of my journey.

Next, I injured my back and was not able to work out in the ways I was working out earlier this year. For the most part, I was in a lot of pain and I could only go on walks and do my physical therapy exercises for a few months. The timing of this injury was not appreciated, but really, there is never a good time for a big injury so we just have to roll with the punches.

Next and on a very positive note, since we last spoke my amazing wife and I were blessed with a new addition! (in boy form) He was born at the end of May and is simply amazing, just like his big brother! He is even more of a motivation for me to get back on track! He and momma are healthy and happy and we are very thankful. Although this was very much a welcomed and planned life change, as any parent knows, adding a kid to the family team brings with it many changes that have to be sorted out and dialed in. Any big change that requires this can take a lot out of you, in the short run at least.

So with those three big changes, not to mention all the normal life stuff, I have struggled a lot with emotions, motivation and inability to workout the way I was working out since the last time I blogged. I ended up doing what many overweight people do, and that is to put my health on the back burner and deal with everything else that is going on. This was not a good strategy, but it was the one I went with and I take accountability for that and blame only myself. 

I could have decided to let this whole “journey” thing go and to find excuses to almost be ok with that, but that is not what I am about! That is not what 103in365 is about!

This month I knew it was time and that I was ready to get back on it! In the roughly 6 months since my last blog, I had gained back all but 3 lbs of the weight that I had lost. (sad face) But wait, (happy face) today is a new day and opportunity is ripe for the picking.

I have decided to start my journey anew. I began again on August 1, and have since lost 10 LBS! My weight on 8-1-13 was (gulp) 315 lbs. So with some simple math, my new goal after I have lost 103 lbs is 212 lbs and my new target date is August 1, 2014.

I am re-committing to this blog and to Monday weigh-ins. I am re-committing to all the goals and strategies that I was doing before. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!” Those things were working, I just stopped doing them. Now I am doing them again and feeling energized, hopeful and confident (just like last time around). There are so many real psychological and physiological benefits we get from setting and working towards healthy goals. It amazes me!

Here is a new commitment for 103in365 Round 2! I will blog every week, starting today through August 1, 2014. This means that even if (when) life gets crazy or the unexpected or expected big changes happen even if they are catastrophic and devastating, I will blog anyway and I will not backslide and I WILL reach my goal!! You are stuck with me, valued reader, and this time I am not going anywhere!

So there you have it! I’m back and more motivated than ever!

Take away for this week. Life, and death, will knock you down sometimes. You can count on it. When it does, you can stay down or you can get back up, dust yourself off, reevaluate and get back working on your goals. I choose the getting back up plan!

Smaller Scuba, here I come!

Scuba

Day 134 of 103in365: 33/103

Hey There,

So I am content with my weigh-in this week, No loss but no gain. I have been on a bit of a gaining streak and it was important to me that this week marked the end of that nonsense. In my head, I am invisioning a train headed in wrong direction. The conductor first needs to stop the train before the direction can be reversed. This week past week was "stop the train" week. This coming week is "get going in the right direction again" week. (Last week's name was easier to say)

I woke up and worked out before work this morning and I am going to do that much more often. I did have to give up a bit of sleep to do it, but it payed off in having more energy as the day went on, and the pride I felt that I did it!

This week, I have been thinking about how our lives are made up off an accumulation of all the decisions that we make. Sometimes the decision is, or seems to be, small. Sometimes the decision is much larger.  ("Leon is getting LARGER")

I have been looking at my journey with the same sentiment. (The first part, not the Airplane part.)

Reaching my goals of weight loss and fitness will either be achieved, or not achieved, by the accumulation of seemingly small decisions. They are small decisions when looked at by themselves, but they are quite large and will make all the difference, when looked at for the part they play in the bigger picture.

Should I work out right now? Should I eat this, or should I eat more of this or less of this? These decisions multiplied by all the times we make them, make up the success or epic fail.

If we want to get closer to our goals, we need to make all the small decisions on purpose. On purpose we can make the decision to get a bit closer to our goals everyday.

On purpose we can also decide to let our hair down and not be perfect once and awhile. If we make a habit of doing this too often though, we will be getting ourselves closer to that epic fail.

I have been trying to live by the 95-5 rule that I talked about a few months ago. If I am doing the things I need to be doing 95% if the time (watching what and/or how much I am eating, staying hydrated, working out etc.) I can not be perfect 5% of the time and still reach my goals.

Tom Landry, head coach for the Cowboys for almost 30 years, said this about goals. "Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan."

Take away for the week. Setting a goal is good. More important though is coming up with a good plan and sticking to it. Even when it feels easier to make the excuse that you can slack a bit today and it won't affect the big picture. News flash Ginger! Slacking a bit today and then slacking a bit more and more, adds up to the epic fail and not to success.

My goals are too important! I choose success!

Scuba

Day 127 of 103in365: 33/103

Hey There!


I thought I would do something different this week!

Here it is!

Scuba

Day 120 of 103in365: 34/103

Hey There!

So the scale says I am back to 34 lbs down this morning. I did not expect a record week, and was not going to be surprised if I gained.

Right after I did my blog entry last week, I PINGED my back picking up my son repeatedly (once at a really weird angle.) I have been in consistent back pain since then and my workouts have suffered.

I iced, rested and did some back stretches and exercises, and today it feels the best it has all week. (I am still only 70% but I am getting back on the workout train tomorrow. Modified ... but back at it.

I could have pushed myself this week even though I have been in pain, but I reminded myself that I am in it for the long haul and I need to get my back feeling better, and that is more important than a few workouts.

I have used the analogy in conversation, that I might be making different decisions if I was trying to lose a bunch of weight fast for a wedding or some other event. This is not the case though. I have my eye on a more permanent prize and one that takes a lot longer but stays a lot longer and equals real life change. This has guided many of my decisions in my journey so far.

This has been a setback week, and as long as I have many more moving forward weeks, and only a few setback or stagnant weeks, I am going to be as happy as Ralph Macchio in a wax factory on "Free Sample" day! (Wax on ... Wax off)

I will let you know how the week goes as I get back on the 103in365 Express! 

Have a good week and remember that large goals take a long time, and things won't go perfectly all the time. It is how we how we organize our efforts, reorganize our efforts when necessary, and get back on the train without giving up, that is going to make all the difference.

Scuba

Day 113 of 103in365: 38/103

Hey There,

Right out of the gate, I will report that I lost 1 lb. this week. (I've had worse.)

That puts me at 38 LBS into this thing!

Gluten-Free January is going very well. I am still GF, although I did not recognize that there were croutons in the salad tonight and ate part of one. (I think I will live.) Franz Bread has the best GF bread I have found so far. (Since you asked)  I have tried several brands at this point, and Franz got it right!

I got some really good advice from some GF supporters (that I need to put into practice). They both suggested that I beware of just substituting as much GF carbs for the wheat carbs I used to eat. They wisely suggested to take this opportunity to cut back a bit on carbs some altogether. I am going to work harder on that this week. (Thanks for the advice, even if I have not followed it yet.)

I suffered from a cold this week (no excuses), and I just felt zapped of most of my energy. I did not get as many workouts in as I have been doing recently. That is going to change this week.

In the past few months I have been getting in roughly 4 or 5 workouts a week. They vary in intensity, in what I am doing and they also vary in length of time. I would say that I rarely have been working out longer than 45 minutes, and much of the time. shorter than that. Sometimes I do 2 short workouts in a day, instead of 1 longer one.

This week, partially due to my cold and partially do to my history around weight loss, I came close to hitting yet another wall. I struggled with the motivation to workout as much as I should have, and I made some eating decisions that were not perfect.

I was reading back on some of my older entries, and as I suspected, this is not the first I am having this discussion with you, and it won't be my last. I am very excited about how much better I am feeling. I am very excited about hearing how much different I look already. I am very excited about how much better my clothes are fitting. That is a lot of excitement!

All that being said, I still find myself needing to push through this sabotaging "urge" and this learned response to a noticeable level of weight loss success. Until now, I have always said to myself whether consciously or unconsciously, "I Say. Well done old man. Jolly good show and all that. Now sit back and relax a bit". This is one of the main reasons I have not been successful in the past. I have historically fell back into a comfortable and easy (eat more and exercise less) lifestyle.

Not this time Toodles!

I thought back today to a documentary that we watched about Air Force One. (The plane(s) not the movie) (Good movie though with Harrison Ford) (I like that guy) (As much as I know about him at least)

Anywho, this documentary talked about all manner of fascinating facts about Air Force One. Digression in 3 .... 2 .... 1 ....

Did you know that there are actually 2 identical Boeing 747-200Bs that serve as Air Force One so that if one has a problem, they just switch to the other one faster than you can say "Luke, we're gonna have company!" (Sorry. Harrison Ford on the brain.)

Also, there is a sizable crew of folks that keep these two planes in perfect running order. Another interesting fact is that even though those two 747s are what we know as Air Force One, really Air Force One is any Air Force plane the President it currently on.

One of the pilots in the documentary said something that really stuck with me and is the reason I got onto the topic of the President's plane in the first place. He said that every time the President is on Air Force One, it is an official Air Force Mission. He went on to state that everything and everybody has to be perfect because when they have the President, it is a "Zero-Fail Mission."

I like that. Zero-Fail Mission! There is no acceptance of failure! No matter what has to be done. Whether the plane has to be switched out, refueled in midair, or any number of prepared contingency plans, the mission can not and will not "Fail".

I am on a "Zero-Fail Mission" to lose and keep this weight off, and to get and stay fit! That means that I have to continue to prepare contingency plans for anything that might come up on my personal mission too. I have to continue to not accept anything but success and not accept failure. That is how committed I am to these goals! I am doing whatever it takes this time, and that is a level of commitment I have not had before.

Are you that committed to your main goals right now? Are you committed to doing whatever it takes to succeed this time, no matter how long it takes! (and no matter how many times you have come short before now?) If not, that is where you need to be. That is the only way you or I are going to reach any of the goals we maybe previously felt were unreachable or too difficult. 

I hope you think of your most important goal(s) with me right now and declare with me ...

"I am on a Zero-Fail Mission!"

Scuba

Day 106 of 103in365: Weigh-in Monday 37/103

Hey There!

First things first. I hit an all time low today ... on the scale. (Not an "All Time" low, just an all time low for 103in365. Which is still AMALZING!)

I clocked in at 281 LBS! That gets me to 37 LBS total now!

What are you going to talk about this week Scuba? I am so glad you asked!

This week I have really been thinking about and focusing on, KEEPING THINGS FUN!

There is so much in our lives that is not fun. If we go about our health and fitness in a way that is also not fun, well, ... good luck Ginger!

Getting and staying fit needs to be fun because it is also a good deal of work and takes a good deal of energy and planning. Loosing 37 lbs did not happen by accident and it did not happen because I was dreading every day and dreading every workout. It happened, (you already know this about me if you have been reading some of my other blogs) because I am making and keeping it fun this time!

Listen to me now and believe me later! That is a full time job all by itself. But here is the rub. If I were to stop putting so much effort into making and keeping this whole thing as fun as possible, there is little chance I would have had the success I have had so far, and even less chance I would have the success that I am going to have in the near future.

I have been having fun in some ... well ... fun ways! I've been watching movies while I am working out for one thing. I really liked working out to Premium Rush this week because most of the movie is Joseph Gorden-Levitt (you know I got his name off IMDB because I don't commit many actors names to memory. I am usually all "I just saw a good movie with that one dude from that other movie") riding his bike around Manhattan in a hurry. When he would speed up, I would speed up. The only thing is that I can't get as much air with my stationary recumbent bike as he was getting on his bike on the screen.

I like watching action movies when I work out, because if it gets to introspective, I slow down to ponder my place in the universe and forget to put the pedal to the medal. Don't get me wrong. I really like movies that make me think. Especially ones that make me think, or I will be too lost to enjoy myself. (I know what you are thinking. "Someone found the Italics button". Wait till I find the Bold button.)

If you have any good movie recommendations, please let me know. Especially ones that might be good to watch whilst working out. Next on my watch list, or re-watch list in this case, is Transporter and Transporter 2! That Jason Statham is a Bad A!

I have made reference to some of the ways I am having fun working out. The speed bag and the Wing Chun Dummy are two of the things that are really motivating me to workout because I love doing them and I want to keep getting better at them. Unlike the recumbent bike, for instance, there are a lot of skills and practice involved in them and that challenge is helping my motivation a ton!

Also, I am having an increasing amount of fun planning and cooking meals. Especially because it is Gluten-Free January (which is going great by the way! Thanks for asking) and that's really making me need/want to be more involved in what I am eating and cooking. My momma didn't raise no fool, so I was smart enough to marry a chef! (I am smarter than you thought, huh?) My amazing wife and I are having an increased amount of fun in the kitchen planning and cooking more often and experimenting with new and delicious ways to eat healthier and for me to do it GF.

Next week I will talk more about how life has been Gluten-Free. (teaser) So far it has been great and its really working out just as I had hoped it would.

Take away for this week: Don't forget to work really hard to have fun! It probably won't happen if you always leave it up to chance and your goals are too important to leave anything up to chance!

Work hard to play hard!

Scuba

Day 99 of 103in365: Weigh-in Monday 35/103

Hey There!

So I came in at 283 LBS this morning! That is the lowest I have been yet! (which is the point, right?)

Last night I tried on a bunch of my clothes and made a pile of clothes to donate that fit too loose or look too baggy. It is a pretty big pile!

It turns out that I have been hanging out in the 44 waist size for some time. I have gotten as big as needing a 46 too. I am officially a size 40 today and I can feel and see the difference!

My goal is to feel really comfortable in a size 36. I have been a size 36 once in the last decade or so, so I know that it is a reasonable goal for me.

Gluten-Free January is going great! It is not easy, but I have not cooked or eaten this much "clean" and healthy food in ... I don't know how long. There is not a lot out there in restaurants (maybe specialty restaurants) or at convenience stores (maybe specialty convenience stores) that is gluten free, so I have forced myself to have a much higher investment in planning and preparing my meals. Here is the best news. I am having a blast!

I love cooking. I have just gotten lazy over the years and Gluten-Free January is helping me to get unlazy about cooking and cooking healthier! That's one result I'd hoped to have and it has been even more that I expected! I've been cooking so much this week and my amazing wife has been supporting me by cooking some fantastic food and putting together some sock-popping-off chicken salads!

I am certainly not going carb free! I am eating corn tortillas, gluten-free bread, brown rice etc. I am generally eating less carbs overall in the journey, but really not by a whole lot. I have been so curious how I would feel and how much weight I might lose going gluten-free. In one respect this seems like a big change, but really it does not seem that way to me. This is just challenging, but in all the right ways!

As I spoke about last week, I have two pictures in a less "fat hiding" t-shirt that my amazing wife took of me in the beginning of October. She took a few pics of me in that same shirt a two days ago. The picture quality is not very good, but I'll take better pics next time.  Here is what 35 LBS less looks like on me.

Before

 Now

Not bad! Its a start! I have a long way to go, but I am on my way and moving forward!

That reminds me of one of my favorite Simpson's quotes. It is from one of the aliens. Kang to be exact.

"Tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!"

Don't forget to twirl!

Scuba

Day 93 of 103in365: Weigh-in Monday 32/103

Happy New Year!

Let me tell you something I have figured out.

The scale is not to be trusted!

Last Monday, the thing told be that I had gained 2 lbs, then on Thursday, it told me I had lost 6 lbs in 3 days (and one of those days with a very carby Christmas day!)

Yesterday I weighed in at 286. So that makes me down 32 lbs (thus the 32/103).

I have read and talked to people about weighing yourself for the intent of tracking your weight loss and I do almost everything that is suggested. Weigh yourself infrequently because there is so much fluctuation in your weight, even inside the same day. Weigh yourself at the same time of day in the same clothes etc. There are so many factors that make the scale fluctuate even if you follow all the appropriate scale etiquette. What you have eaten or drank and how long ago, how much water are you drinking, are you retaining water, how much salt are you consuming, when was the last time you exercised, etc. (Exhausting!)

Here is my feeling about the scale. It is a useful tool to give you an idea of your success, but not as the end all or definitive measure of your progress. Instead, you should pay attention to how you feel, how you look and the inches you have lost.

So that is enough of that!

I will continue to show my weight loss every week, but starting next week, I am going to show more pictures of me and report on inches lost too. (I have a picture that I took on October 3rd in a shirt that is not as "fat hiding" as the shirt that I am wearing in the pic I posted on my first entry on Oct 1. That is the shirt I am going to use for comparison pics.)

Here is the skinny on my January plan. This is day 1 of "Gluten-Free January"!  I began today and I am going to cut out all Gluten from my diet for at least the whole month. I want to see how I feel without all the wheat products in my diet. (THEY say it feels great) I also like that even on day one, I am experiencing an expected additional need to plan to eat purposefully and specifically. These are important characteristics of any healthy eating lifestyle.

I will let you know how my first week went next week! I am excited to try something very significant and very new. I am excited to see how much weight I will loose by needing to plan my meals better, for what I am learning and will continue to learn about nutrition and Gluten-Free and Clean Eating and to be able to share my experiences and newly gained knowledge with you!

Consider committing to some healthy changes for this New Year so that you can not only be more healthy this year, but you will also be around to experience many more New Years!

Have a great week and Happy New Year!
Scuba