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