Don't take a vacation

Whatever you do, you should never go on a vacation.  Ever.

 

I am not saying you should never go to Maui, Orlando or San Juan, I am talking about taking a vacation from being healthy.  Last summer I was doing great on my weight loss and eating.  Where it all went bad was when I took a week off and took a week vacation.  I stopped worrying about what I ate, I stopped doing my blog.

Once I stopped working out as regularly, my eating got lax, and then I started traveling again.  It is hard to travel to places like Italy and eat healthy. 

Then there have been a plethora of other contributing factors that have led to this point.  There is not singular event that is responsible, it is just a chain of events that when stacked up that got me here.  I could say that about the past 30 some odd years of my life too. 

I am not worried about what GOT me here, it is a list of excuses and procrastination that got me here.  I cannot live in the past, all I can do is worry about my future. 

I spent a bunch of time on vacation in New York visiting family during this past summer.  I managed to do well with my eating and work on exercising.  I am currently on a plane to Romania and I plan on exercising when I can whilst there.  I also brought plenty of light snacks (nuts and high protein bars) so I can eat more small meals and not engorge myself on large meals. 

I will never go on vacation from eating properly again.  I have changed my habits over the past 3 months.  I refuse to call it a diet.  Diets fail left and right. I have changed my lifestyle, and it is one that I can live with.  I have managed to do it for the better part of 3 months so I am pretty sure that it is change that I can live with for the rest of my life.

Wake Up Call

Have you ever had a sobering wake up call?  Phone alarm goes off at 7:00 AM and you are still a bit tipsy?

Picture it.  June 23rd, 2013.  Wake Forest, NC.  I was going about my day and folding some laundry.  I was sweating like crazy.  This is not something unusual for me, I have always had overactive sweat glands.  Probably has to do with being so overweight, but it is something I have learned to live with.  However, this was way more than normal.  So much so that my wife noted it.  I also had a nasty headache.  I took my temperature and it was 94°.  Argue if you want that the thermometer was broken, but a 2nd thermometer confirmed it and also the first thermometer worked fine when my wife used it.

Off to urgent care!

I was called into the back and this is where I had my sobering wake up call.  They were checking my vitals.  This is what I saw:

Two pounds away from 400 lbs.  HOLY CRAP BALLS!  Granted, I know I am obese, fat, large, etc.  I was just a bit shocked that I was this close to 400 lbs.  I had not been trying to lose weight, but I thought I was maintaining around 380 or so.  I guess that was NOT the case.

Most of you are aware that I have had a lot going on in my life over the past year.  My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 gall bladder cancer, my wife's uncle had a life altering stroke that has changed his life dramatically and my wife and I have been trying to figure out what is best for our relationship and we are currently in a voluntary/therapeutic separation.  I guess all of that stress had caused me to stress eat more than I had thought.

When something like this happens, there are 2 paths one could take.

1. Get depressed and deal with it by my favorite culinary treats and binge to make myself feel better.
2. Buck up and DO something about it.  

There is no doubt that I did want to take option 1, and I am sure that I did this at times for the first few days.  However, this does not fix anything and actually usually makes me feel worse in the long run.

Also, as this was happening I was helping my wife pack up so she could move to NY to be closer to family.  This is also hard to keep your head up knowing your best friend is moving so far away.  But at the same time, this type of behavior is what has lead us to the point we are in our relationship.

So, it was time to put my nose to the grindstone.  I found out this is quite painful.

I managed to get through the move and mind what I was eating most of the time.  I also made an appointment with my nutritionist, mainly for some accountability more than anything.  I KNOW how to eat healthy and lose weight.  It is just about doing it.

I went to see my nutritionist on July 12.  Had a nice discussion with her and I had lost a nice solid 5 lbs.  I was excited, but at the same time I was starting a new chapter in my life without my biggest supporter, my wife.  I had to have a plan so my nutritionist came up with a plan as well as a follow up appointment for the end of August. 

I have spent the past 6 weeks in New York to spend time with my mom for obvious reasons.  My boss was nice enough to let me spend this time there and also to work from there.  I had taken my bike with me to exercise.  I also planned on spending some time at my parents lake place so I was not overwhelming them by spending 6 weeks with them.  Trust me, if I had stayed there for that long, someone would not be making it out alive.  I found out that I love spending time on the water, even if it is in a man powered vessel like a canoe or kayak.  My sister was nice enough to let me bring her kayak down for the past month and have use of it.  I probably canoed/kayaked about 30 miles in the past 6 weeks and rode over 100 miles on my bike.  I also was focused on my meals to be healthier.  Was I perfect every meal for the last month and a half?  HELL NO, but I understand the concept that one single meal will not make a difference.  You can have a "bad meal" every now and again and it will not kill you.  This morning I saw a friend had posted the photo to the right (thanks Scherm!) and it made me smile. Also, if you have a big/bad meal, do not feel bad about it.  Just move on.  That is all you can do.

So, today was the big day with my follow up to see my nutritionist.  What did the big bad scale say?  well, I was happy to see that it said 282.  This is an 11 lb loss over 6.5 weeks and comes out to more than 1.5 lbs lost per week.  Would I like to see more?  HELL YEAH!  But I will take it.  I feel AWESOME.  The night before last I stayed at a hotel and was on the 5th floor.  I went out to test drive a car after I checked in.  When I got back I parked at the end of the hotel and just about ran up 4 flights of stairs.  When I got to the top, wanna know what I was thinking?  You may assume it had to do with being out of breath, or that it was hard work but you would be wrong.  I had not even broken a sweat and I could still breathe fine.  My thought was HOLY COW, I am really dizzy!  Best part of all is that I can live with my meal plan.  It works for me and that is the most important thing of all.

If you are on a "diet" that you hate, it is never going to work.  Sure, sometimes my healthy protein shakes end up as a peanut butter shake if my sweet tooth is killing me (milk, ice, peanut butter and some of my favorite protein powder).  It is not as healthy as a spinach blueberry smoothie, but I can guarantee you it is no where near as bad as a milkshake from a ice cream stand.

So, this is where I am at with my journey.  I feel awesome, and I am hoping to keep this up for as long as necessary.  Hopefully the rest of my life.  That is a long time to think about, but at the same time I just need to take it one meal at a time.  Looking at the big picture is so hard but taking small steps makes it tolerable.

What are you drinking?

Is a drinking problem holding you back from losing weight?  Ted Striker from Airplane! had a big drinking problem (see photo on the right).  Granted, it was not stopping him from losing weight, but it was still holding him back.....from keeping his shirt dry.

One of the most important parts of a healthy diet is good ole H₂O.  To quote Kings Quest video game:

Ahh, lifegiving water.  Nectar of the Gods.

I read a book a few years back about the South Beach Diet and it went in depth about why drinking water is important to losing weight.  It allows your kidneys to function properly.  If you do not have enough water, your liver is forced to help clean your blood and it cannot function properly.  Enough water also allows our body to regulate its temperature better and a whole plethora of other advantages.  According to the Mayo Clinic, the average human should be drinking between 72 and 104 oz. of water a day.  Some experts have forumulas based on weight that could have you drinking upwards of 160 oz. of water a day.  Also, if you are doing lots of exercise or working in heat, you will need to increase this.

Beyond that, what are you drinking?  I enjoy some coffee from time to time (ok a few times a day).   Coffee has very few calories, somewhere around 2 calories for 8 oz, or 5 for a 20 oz cup!  But, what ELSE do you add to it?  I enjoy coffee in its own form, but most people I know tend to add something to it.  Milk, sugar, etc.  This adds calories to it and many people may not realize it.  The average espresso drinks (Latte, Cappucino, etc.) in a 20 oz size (venti) from Starschmucks yields 373 calories...FOR A DRINK!  Even getting the nonfat (skim milk) version only cuts the calories down to about 250 calories.  If you want a caffeine fix, perhaps you should learn to enjoy a cup of coffee alone and save yourself 245-368 calories.

Another easy way to drink your calories is soda. Coca-Cola or Pepsi has about 100 calories in 8 oz.  How often do you drink 8 oz?  Usually it is a 12 oz can, or a 1 liter (32 oz) bottle.  This will increase you to 150-400 calories.

So my friends if you are having trouble losing weight, I ask you this:

     What are you drinking?

• Are you drinking enough water?
• Do you know how many calories you are drinking?

If you are not sure, increase your water intake for a week and be conscious of what you are drinking and see what happens.  You may be surprised at the results.

 

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAALLL!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAALLL!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAALLL!!!!!!!! GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL, GOOOOOOOOAAALLL!!!!!!!

In theory, we all have goals.  Not just for weight loss, but also for our life.  Many people ask you

What is stopping you from reaching your goal?

 But, the more important question that should be asked is this:

Is your goal reasonably achievable? 

We often set a goal that is too far out, or too hard to reach when setting our weight loss goals.

What have I always wanted as an end result from working out?  To look like this:

But, as it turns out, no amount of working out will turn me into a fit black man!

In all seriousness, my goal is to get one of these:

You are probably scratching your head right about now asking me why I can't just go out and buy one.  There is one major hurdle stopping me.  My wife.  She told me I could get one when I can fit into it.  I informed her I could fit just fine as is, but she did not concur.  So, we struck up a deal that if an when I get down to about 200 lbs, I can get one.  That deal was struck about 1.5 years ago.  It has not motivated me to lose weight because it is too big of a goal, and too far into the future to comprehend and maintained focused on.

Be sure to have a LONG TERM goal in mind, but in the mean time work on some short term goals.  My current goal is this:

I want to be able to weigh myself on our scale at home.

From when I started this journey in early July, it was about a 40 lb goal.  I am over halfway to reaching this goal in just 5 weeks.

Once I reach this goal, I will then set another goal for myself.  Our minds work much better when focusing on short term goals.  Goals that take 1-2 years of hard work and perseverance  are hard to keep our heads wrapped around that.  Setting some more achievable attainable goals in the short term can be very helpful to getting to your bigger goal.  Also, once you hit one of your short term goals, be sure that you do not "REWARD" yourself so much that it sabotages you from continuing your journey.

So, if you see me driving around in a shiny Camaro, or some other sports car that costs less than $50k, you will know that I have achieved my goal.

And now time for my ticker.  Only 1 lb lost this week, but I am still trying to keep my chin up and focus on my diet.  I need to get more focused on getting the proper and balanced nutrition.

One Month and counting....

So, today is 1 month since I started the ViSalus challenge and I am feeling great.  The past week I only lost about a half a pound, but I did lose an inch off my waist so I am not gonna complain.  I know there were some days I could have been better on my nutrition, but I did manage to get a solid 5 days of 60+ minutes of working out.  I do my weigh ins on Monday, and as of Monday I have lost 19 lbs.  I am pretty happy with that as it is more than half of my goal for 90 days.

I figured I would share some of the things that I found that have worked for me in my success thus far, and that I plan on doing in the future:

• Find a meal plan that works.  Doing the ViSalus shakes seems to work for me.  They have a pretty good flavor, and you can mix them up in anything.  Some mornings I use them as cream/sugar for my iced coffee, some days I make a fruit smoothie, others I just mix with milk or almond milk.  Having 2 shakes, plus a snack (power bar, greek yogurt, NutraCookie or some other high protien snack around 200 calories or less) I usually end up with about 500 calories and I feel full until around 4-5 PM) and can eat a decent sized supper.  This may not work for everyone, but find what does work for you.  Without proper nutrition, all the exercise in the world may not help you lose the weight you want.
• Find tools that work.  I have been using MyFitnessPal to track calories consumed and burned.  It has a good database, and if you have a smartphone or tablet you can use the camera as a bar code scanner.  I do not worry about tracking EVERY calorie that goes into my mouth EVERY DAY.  I try to track most of my calories most days, and all of my calories one or two days a week.  Livestrong also has a good tool, MyDailyPlate that works well.  
• Track with friends - using tools like MyFitnessPal and MyDailyPlate, find friends who use these tools. Most of them will integrate with social networks to help you find friends using them.  Sharing your progress with friends can be very motivating.
• Use your smartphone.  If you have one, it can be a helpful tool to help you keep motivated.  I use the MapMyFitness app to track my outdoor workouts.  If going for a walk or a bike ride, it will track your route, speed, etc.  She even tells you when you hit each mile.  I usually play some Pandora radio while biking or walking as well to keep me motivated.
• Vary your workouts.  Variety is the spice of life.  If you hop on the treadmill every day for 4 weeks for cardio workouts, you are going to start hating your workouts.  If you are a member of a gym, check for fitness classes like Zumba, Spinning, Yoga, etc.  If your gym has a pool look for water aerobics classes.  On the days that I really do not want to do one apparatus for a long period of time I will do a "Cardio Cocktail".  Pick a few machines.  For a 30 minute workout, pick 3 machines and do 10 minutes each.  Rowing, Stair Stepper, Elliptical.  If your gym has more machines, add more of a mix to your cocktail.  This can make it seem more fun and less of a burden.  It is also good to keep your body guessing by varying your workouts so it does not get into a routine of what to expect any given day.
• Remember, it is a marathon and not a sprint.  It can be stressful and depressing if you worry too much about having a bad week.  We all have them, stress at work, home, life, etc.  Sometimes we do not eat as well as we should.  Be honest with yourself, and also remember that the body is not a perfect machine.  Calories in vs calories out does not always equal weight loss.  Keep a focus on the big picture:  Getting Healthy.  Even if you are not losing weight, you are still conditioning your body to work better by working out regularly.  That flight of stairs will get easier even if you have not lost weight.  
• Find your caloric intake goal.  Many apps will have calorie goals based on your weight.  Remember, these are not perfect.  Some people have higher metabolism than others.  For better readings get a calorie tracking device like a Polar heart rate watch, or something like the Nike Fuel Band to help track.  Also, when plotting your calories keep in mind that less calories consumed does not always equal greater weight loss.  I know for myself that if my caloric intake is below 1500 calories per day, I will not lose weight very efficiently.  To lose about 2 lbs a week, my daily goal is around 2400 calories.  I try to keep my intake between 1500 and 2500 on a daily basis.
• Lastly, drink lots of water.  Water is very important in keeping our bodies functioning properly.  Very rarely can you drink too much water.  Drinking a gallon of water a day is what is healthy.  This keeps our blood balance, our kidneys can function to clean out the blood of toxins and waste which helps the liver not have to work so hard to keep the body clean.  It also allows us to keep ourselves cool when we need it by sweating.  Not drinking enough water on a daily basis can drastically stunt weight loss without even realizing it.

Well, those are my tips thus far.  Good luck to anyone else who is working on losing weight, getting in shape and working for a healthier tomorrow.

And now for my weight loss ticker:

Two weeks down, Too many to go!

Ok, today is day 14 of my 90 day challenge. I had a fun surprise for me this morning.  I did not do laundry over the weekend, so most all of my workout clothes were dirty.  Looked through my drawer o' clothes and found a shirt that I tried to wear on day 1 which did not fit.  Figured, what the heck.  Throw it on and see if maybe it fits better.  What do you know, it fit much better and I could actually wear it out in public and not feel like a fat slob!

Got on the scale this morning and found out I have lost 12 lbs in 14 days, which is awesome in my book.  The slightly depressing part is it is only 1 lb in 6 days, but it is a loss.  But, then again, this weekend I was not exactly tracking my calories and I am sure that I went over, especially yesterday when I binged on some cheese puffs. 

Our upstairs Air Conditioner is out right now and I did not feel like sleeping on the couch so I slept with the windows open and some fans blowing cooler air (about 75°) into the 80°+ room while I slept.  Should mention it was about 90% humidity too...  Needless to say I did not sleep all that soundly, and when my alarm went off at 0600 to get my sorry ass out of bed, I did NOT want to!  

But - I had to.  Why?  Because of the fact that if I do not get up on Monday-Friday, chances are I will not make my 5 days of working out in for the week.  Yeah, I could've slept in, but I would have only gotten about another 30 minutes at most because I had an appointment with my personal trainer before work too.  The toughest part of working out is just getting into the gym.  I almost say getting to the gym, but in the past I have gotten to the gym, looked at the doors, then decided to drive home. 

So, while at the gym I weighed in. Why not do it at home?  Simple: the scale at home cannot weigh me.  That is one of the reasons I am working out, so I can weigh myself at home.  Did an easy 3.5 MPH walk on the treadmill at 0 incline for 30 minutes.  I took it easy, my right quadriceps are a bit sore from moving some oak furniture up the stairs Saturday and I did not stretch afterwards.  Since I was meeting my personal trainer afterwards, I did not want my quad to be killing me even more.  Did stretching before and after my cardio to loosen up my legs.  Headed to find my personal trainer and while waiting stretched some more.  

Olo always knows how to push me just to the line, but not so much that I cannot complete the workout.  We did barbells today.  All but 1 of the exercises was done while standing up, and Olo makes me do a shallow squat instead of just standing to increase the burn.  Not great for the quads, but  a great workout none the less.  After my workout, came home and went upstairs....to my 80°+ wonderland to shower.  Not the best thing to come home to, but what are ya gonna do.  Stretched some more, and my right quad is killing me more than before.  

Well, enough whining about my quad.  It feels (mostly) good to have 2+ weeks of working out under my belt.  Still not quite a routine yet, but it gets easier every day.

Many thanks again to Amy for sending me motivational photos.

Update 1

Ok, time for an update. I have been doing the ViSalus shakes pretty constantly, but I had one minor hiccup.

July 6 was my Birthday, and I went a little crazy eating out with friends and such.  That coupled with the fact that my ViSalus shakes did not arrive until the 9th, I am calling the 9th day 1 of my 90 day ViSalus challenge.

Although I gained a few pounds, I did not freak out about it and I did not give up.  Just a little speed bump, but I reset the clock and started from scratch.  That is all we can do when we get derailed a bit.  If we let ourselves get mentally overrun ever time something is not perfect, we will never get anywhere.

So, today I weighed myself and was quite shocked that in only 8 days that I had lost 11 lbs.  This included 2 days on the road, and I went out to eat Friday and Saturday with friends.  I tried to make good choices, but most importantly I made sure to track my calories.

I have gotten some motivation from one of my friends who has had a tough weight loss journey.  She shared this picture about SWEAT with me to help keep me motivated.  That is the toughest thing to do - keep motivated.  Moving forward can be tough at times, but if we do not try to do this, we are only giving up.  No matter how steep the hill, we must keep climbing. 

I have been trying to keep my workouts varied, combinations of treadmill, bicycling (not on a stationary bike), elliptical trainer, hill walking, swimming, stairs, along with circuit training with my personal trainer.  I have not had great access to my trainer, I was out of town last Wednesday, and he was traveling Friday and Monday.  Despite this I have still managed to get some quality workouts in. I need to check with my gym and get into some of the workout classes to break up the monotany.  Granted, I have been watching old episodes of The Big Bang Theory when working out, but it might be nice to work out with some other people and perhaps meet one or two of them.

The first bike ride I took was only about 20 minutes and my pace was around 8 minutes a mile.  My second ride was for 30 minutes and I had trimmed my pace down to only 6 minutes per mile.  The downfall is that my quads are pretty tight from pushing myself so much and I have been working on stretching them, but it is taking a lot to get them lose again.

Well, time to go grab a late lunch (ViSalus shake!) and get some more work done this afternoon.