Motivation for Monday
Per Pippa’s very flattering comment, I decided to make my Toastmaster’s speech this week’s Motivation for Monday. Be sure to adjust your sound. Enjoy.
Log My Loss
This isn't a diet, it is your life!
Day 170 – Reflections on 2008
Here we are, at the end of another year. Like most people, I have some “New Year’s Resolutions”, which I will probably write about tomorrow, but I also want to take this time to reflect upon the last year. Perhaps the greatest change during the last twelve months was my decision that my health was going to change for the better. As I have written before, my life was permanently altered the night of July 13th, 2008. That was the night I made the decision. So what has happened since that decision was made? Well, the most noticable thing to others would be the fantastic weight loss that has occurred. I have lost a total of 25 pounds. More importantly though, I have significantly improved my health. My annual physical showed improvements in almost all my vital readings. However, it also showed me that I still have a long way to go. 2009 promises to be another good year. By the end of it, I hope to be using this soap box as a way to talk about the maintenance phase of my diet.
I am pleased to say that I walked once again today. It was about two miles. I also did the push up program – a total of 91 pushups (14, 19, 14, 14, 30). The walk sure was hard today. It was a little colder than it has been and the wind was very brisk. There were several times that I tried to talk myself into cutting the walk short, but I didn’t.
My South Beach Diet Meal Journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – A little less than one cup of Uncle Sam cereal with a cup of ff, skim milk and one small turkey sausage. I also had five pieces of celery. I had that yesterday too, but I forgot to add that in to yesterday’s journal.
- Mid-morning snack -Two lf cheese sticks.
- Lunch – One pork chop, 3/4 cup of lima beans, and 1/2 cup of chick peas.
- Mid-afternoon snack – An apple with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – A couple of pieces of country ham, lima beans, and white beans.
- Mid-evening snack – One cup of lf, plain yogurt with Jello powder and flax seed mixed in.
- Miscellaneous – This evening I also splurged on popcorn. I am not sure how much I ate, but it was a large bowl. I am very disappointed in that. I will have to walk extra tomorrow.
I want to give one last shout out of the year to everyone who reads my blog. To all my dedicated readers, from California to Maine, Canada to Romania, I appreciate your interest. I do wish more of you would drop a comment every now and then, but I appreciate you anyhow. I wish you all a fantastic 2009. May God bless each of you with health and prosperity. Now, onward and forward into 2009!
Day 169
Believe it or not, I actually exercised again today. I woke up at 5:00 again and went for a two mile walk. I didn’t time the walk, but I think it took about 40 minutes, which is a little slower than I was walking back in October. That is fine though, I am just happy to be walking again.
I am finally caught up on all my projects at work. I had a very important December 31st deadline that I completed today. That alone is a real load off my back. The upcoming quarter looks a little slower, which is good because I have a significant amount of special projects that really need to be done. On another note related to work – I still have 60 hours of vacation left to use this fiscal year (which ends in February), so it looks like I will be taking three day weekends most of the time through then. That is pretty awesome, but I am afraid I will really get used to that, and then I will have to come back to the real world in March.
My South Beach Diet Meal Journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – A little less than one cup of Uncle Sam cereal with a cup of ff, skim milk and one small turkey sausage.
- Mid-morning snack – Two lf cheese sticks.
- Lunch – A can of tuna, a 1/3 cup of green beans, a 1/4 cup of refried beans, and a couple of cups of steamed broccoli. I also had one pickled cayenne. Man, it was HOT, but it was good!
- Mid-afternoon snack – An apple with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – Two pork chops, a cup of chick peas (these were better than I expected), and 3/4 cup of lima beans.
- Mid-evening snack – One cup of lf, plain yogurt with Jello powder and flax seed mixed in.
- Miscellaneous – I had two cups of coffee with Splenda flavored sweetener for coffee. I usually have this with my coffee and rarely denote it here. I will try to remember to do that more in the future.
I have to give Mark some credit for keeping me in line today. I had full intentions of eating three pork chops for supper tonight, but his (appropriate) questioning of portions from yesterday hit home. As my long-time readers know, this is something I really struggle with. I am a very big eater if left to my unhealthy nature. I am trying to counter that somewhat with big portions of vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower. I have a lot of trouble turning down a big dinner, and when I get home in the evening it is like my defenses are down. Regarding dieting, this is my biggest vice.
Day 168
The big news of the day is that I got off my lazy rump and exercised! I decided to take it a little slower than I did a few months ago and only walk a couple of miles. When I got home, I did the middle level of week three on the 100 push ups program. It sure felt good. The versitile hat my wife bought me for Christmas did very well keeping the air I was breathing warm; however, it was a bit uncomfortable. Despite this, I will still be using it going forward. It felt good and I plan on walking again tomorrow.
I also feel like I did much better with my food choices today. My South Beach Diet Meal Journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – A little less than one cup of Uncle Sam cereal with a cup of ff, skim milk and one small turkey sausage.
- Mid-morning snack -Two lf cheese sticks.
- Lunch – A large salad and a can of tuna. I topped the salad with my homemade vinegar and oil dressing. It was great.
- Mid-afternoon snack – An apple with three tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – Three small sirloin steaks (probably the equivelent of one a half regular size steaks), sauteed peppers and onions, green beans, and a little refried beans. Very satisfying.
- Mid-evening snack – One cup of lf, plain yogurt with Jello powder and flax seed mixed in.
- Miscellaneous – I had two cups of coffee with flavored Splenda packets.
I am actively planning my garden for 2009. My wife and I have not really had our own garden in several years, but have gardened with her grandma. This year, I plan on doing both. I am anxiously awaiting some fresh vegetables. They are so much better than the stuff you get at the store. If I get this thing planned out right, I will be able to go pick my salad for lunch after my walks in the morning.
Day 167
I think I have worked myself up to go for a walk tomorrow morning. It is going to be tough, as it will be cold, but I have to make a move. I also plan on starting the 100 push ups program again. I knew from the beginning that this, the exercise, would be the hardest part of the program for me. That isn’t to say that my dieting has been without flaw – it hasn’t, but I can generally stick to it. The exercise it much tougher for me. Part of it is my fear of the cold. I know that sounds weird, and I am not really scared of the cold, but I am scared of getting bronchitis, which seems to happen every time I breathe heavily in cold air. Because of this, I am not going to walk hard tomorrow, nor will I walk as far as I used to, but I am going to make myself exercise.
I have spent my day reading through others blogs. As I posted earlier, I have become a participant on fatbloggers.net. There are really a lot of interesting stories here. I encourage you to check out fatbloggers.net and all the new blog links posted to the right.
My South Beach Diet Meal Journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – A little less than one cup of Uncle Sam cereal with a cup of ff, skim milk and one small turkey sausage.
- Mid-morning snack -Twenty hot almonds.
- Lunch – A large helping of mainly white meat turkey, a small helping of lima beans, and steamed broccoli.
- Mid-afternoon snack -A cup of Uncle Sam cereal with a cup of ff milk and one red pear.
- Supper – A large helping of mainly white meat turkey covered in lf cheese, several cucumbers and onions soaked in vinegar, and about twenty almonds.
- Mid-evening snack – One cup of lf, plain yogurt with Jello powder and flax seed mixed in.
- Miscellaneous – Sometime during the day I also had an apple with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
The Importance of Accountability
This post is crossposted at fatbloggers.net and is my inaugural post there. I want to say thanks to John T over at fatbloggers.net for allowing me to be a part of the site. Be sure and check out the site and pay a visit to some of the other contributors’ blogs.
Here we are nearing another New Year’s Eve. Every year at this time, a large percentage of people begin to set their goals for the upcoming year in the form of New Year’s Resolutions. Every year, one of the top resolutions is to lose weight, yet every year the average person gains weight. Despite good intentions, most new diets will not last into the second week of January and almost none of them will make it to Thanksgiving. By the time Christmas has rolled around again, everyone begins thinking about the few pounds they have gained over the year and they tell themselves that the holiday overindulgence is okay because come January 1st, they are going on a diet. Unfortunately, the cycle is likely to repeat itself again next year.
Nevertheless, there are some people who do succeed in their weight loss endeavors. They begin their diet, whatever it is, and they stick to it. They slowly, but surely, lose the pounds and soon become the envy of their overweight peers. It is my belief that the reason for success is not the latest, greatest diet, nor is it some magic pill or formula that “ensures” success. The reason people succeed is that they have finally had enough. Like Rocky (in the movie Rocky II), after being beat to a pulp by Apollo Creed, these people look up at their Mickey, and say from the bottom of their heart “I ain’t goin’ down no more!” (see the movie clip below, 9:15) These people who succeed have decided that it is time to stand up and fight.
If you continue to watch the rest of this fight scene through the middle of part 2, it is clearly obvious that Rocky’s determination doesn’t mean he won’t get hit anymore. Rocky continues to get beat like a punching bag, but that doesn’t change his determination. Our decision is no different. Life doesn’t suddenly become easy just because we made a decision. No, it may be harder than ever, but it doesn’t matter, the decision has been made.
While I think the most important part was Rocky’s decision that he wasn’t going down again, this was solidified when he told it to Mickey. Once Rocky said this to Mickey, he couldn’t let him down. He was now accountable. You and I need this accountability too. When we are only accountable to ourselves, it is easy to forget our commitment. When dieting and exercise get tough, it is easy to forget the resolution, but if we have made ourselves accountable to someone else, then we have an obligation. Now someone else knows when we fail. This doesn’t mean that our fight won’t still be tough – it will. It doesn’t mean that we won’t make mistakes – we probably will. It doesn’t mean we won’t feel like failures at some point – we probably will. Heck, even after Rocky told Mickey that he wasn’t going down again, he did. It didn’t matter at that point though, Rocky wasn’t going to lose the fight.
I encourage you to find people who you can be accountable to, your Mickey. Be sure and tell them your plans. Tell them that the days of you being this fat are over; every day going forward will be an improvement. Tell them you ain’t staying fat no more! When life continues to knock you down, go back to your corner, look at those you are accountable to, and tell them once again that you are in this fight to win. Then, shake off the hits you have taken, and get back in the ring.
My Mickey is my family and close friends, who all know how important this is to me. It is also my online friends I have developed along the way, with whom I have shared my commitment. It is also my blog, which is my way of shouting to the world, “I ain’t staying fat no more!” If you don’t your Mickey yet, get one. Look him (or her) straight in the eyes, and with all the vigor you can muster, tell them that your fat days are behind you. Ask them to make you accountable. Remind them that if they care at all about you, they have an obligation to remind you of your decision every time you fall down. Remember, you will continue to get hit. In fact, you may even get knocked down again. No matter what though, you are in this fight to win. Now, I just heard the bell ring again. Get up off the stool and get back out there and fight!
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