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 228 – The Internet is Out Again!
I haven’t talked much about my Internet lately because it has been working. The DSL is not hooked up yet and won’t be until at least Monday. We have been lucky though – the cable Internet has been working again. Unfortunately, it is now down again. Right now I am using my laptop and wireless card to latch on to my neighbor’s router for a few minutes.
Yesterday was a pretty good day overall. I walked over four miles yesterday morning. I can’t remember the exact amount right now, but it was about 4.1. I will update that later when I can look at my log.
I also had a great day food wise, eating less than I have been. I am not going to give a full update of the food right now because of some time constraints, but I will try to do that later today.
Day 227 – A Bit of Mindless Rambling
While I am still not where I need to be on the walking, I was able to get myself out of bed and put in about three miles this morning (3.26 to be exact). Yesterday I wrote that my shins had really bothered me during my walk, which hasn’t happened in quite some time. I am sure it is a sign my shoes have worn out and need replaced, as that corrected the problem way back on Day 44. Well, as I was walking this morning I had a nice surprise: my wife hopped in the car and came to check on me to make sure I was okay. Fortunately, I was. I walked considerably slower today, about 3 miles an hour, which is almost leisurely feeling to me, but it was nice to not hurt. I will probably try picking up the pace again this weekend and see what happens.
Speaking of picking up the pace, it is about time to get back in the swing of things with the push up program. My shoulder is feeling considerably better, so I think I should be able to start again next week. When the ice storm hit that threw the world upside down I was just a week away from finishing the 100 pushups program. I guess I will probably go back to week four since I have taken a month off. I was doubting my ability to do 100 pushups after I finished the program anyhow, so I am sure the extra week will help build up the necessary stamina. After I hit that goal, I think I am going to start doing planks every other day. I will, of course, continue with the pushups, but not quite as aggressively. Maybe 60-80 two days a week and then max out on a third day. Any thoughts on this? I really want to maintain what I gain through this program, but I also want to be able to spend time on other exercises too.
Regarding time – how do you all manage that? I really struggle finding the time to fit in my normal, day-to-day tasks plus the other things I want to do. I heard a while back that the average person cannot focus on more than 5-7 things at a time. While I questioned this when I heard it, I have come to believe it is true. For example, in my life I have the following things that are time occupiers for me right now (in no certain order): my family, my job, my weight loss/blog, my church, and a civic organization that I am involved with. I also spend smaller amounts of time with my computer repair business, homework with the kids, some web-design work (mostly volunteer), and chores around the house. While the time is limited right now, I will gradually be spending more time with my garden as the weather heats up. Anyhow, I find that I often believe I can do anything, so I tend to start it. The funny thing is I do believe I can do most anything, but as I get into the project I find that I cannot do everything. In other words, once I find my time gets devoted to too many things, something begins to suffer. As a result, I have to pull back on occasion and make sure I am focusing the proper amount of energy on the big five and not taking on too many lesser projects.
Diet choices today were good overall, however, I am sure I ate too much. For example, look at my breakfast. I don’t know why I have been craving the Grape Nuts lately, I usually am not that fond of them. This mixture and amount seems to fill me up well, and I don’t feel overfull, but I am sure it is too much. My weight loss has certainly slowed over the last few months and I think that is largely because I have become lax in my diet. I am going to make a conscious effort, starting now, to eat less with every meal. Of course, that isn’t reflected in my meals choices shown below. My South Beach Diet meal journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – One cup of Uncle Sam cereal and 1/4 cup of Grape Nuts with a tablespoon of flax seed and a cup and a half of ff milk. I also had two small turkey sausages.
- Mid-morning Snack – One apple and one tablespoon of natural peanut butter.
- Lunch – One pork chop, one pork steak, a cup of white beans, and a cup of broccoli slaw.
- Mid-afternoon Snack – One apple with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – One pork chop, black-eyed peas, a small serving of fried sweet potatoes, and a salad with Ranch Dressing.
- Mid-evening Snack – Nothing.
Last, another quick garden update. Several more of the peppers, mostly sweet ones, have poked their heads out of the ground. So far, several more than I have expected have successfully germinated. I hope this is a good sign. The tough ones to germinate are still laying there waiting, but maybe they will break through soon. I also have quite a bit of onions, lettuce, cauliflower, and broccoli started. I start the tomatoes this Friday. I am trying several new kinds this year, many of which are supposed to be very flavorful. It won’t be long until fresh veggies are here; I cannot wait!
Day 226 – My Body is Fighting It!
That’s right, my body is really fighting the whole exercise thing. I played the whole snooze game again this morning; nevertheless, I was able to drag my lazy tail out of bed in time to get a two mile walk in (actually 2.08 miles). I am happy I did that, but still kind of ticked that I didn’t get in four miles. I find it funny that I was just bragging on how I was going to walk four miles a day for a while, and now I can’t seem to make myself do it.
Anyhow, another body issue occurred while walking today. My shins started hurting again. I don’t know if I was trying to walk too fast since I woke up late or if my shoes have finally worn out and need replaced. I feel like that is probably it.
My food choices today were pretty good. I tried eating another apple as a mid-morning snack, but I still had a little low blood sugar at lunch. I wish I knew why this was happening all of a sudden. Maybe it will stop tomorrow.
My South Beach Diet meal journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – One cup of Uncle Sam cereal and a 1/4 cup of Grape Nuts mixed with 1.5 cups of ff milk. I really enjoyed this today.
- Mid-morning Snack – One apple with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Lunch – One lf cheese stick, one can of tuna, and a couple of cups of steamed broccoli. I also had three pickled jalapenos.
- Mid-afternoon Snack – One apple with three tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – One pork steak (way too fatty, but it was good!), white beans, broccoli cole slaw (delicious!), and a salad with Ranch Dressing.
- Mid-evening Snack – Nothing.
One thing I forgot to mention the other day was that I broke my glasses. This wouldn’t normally be too bad because I would just use my old pair. Unfortunately, I broke those a few weeks ago working in the yard. Anyhow, I have a missing ear piece, but the glasses are very thin, so almost no one notices. Of course, this would be a week where I am meeting with several very important people at work. So far it has been a good ice breaker, but it sure is annoying to me. I ordered a new pair on Saturday, but they aren’t scheduled to be in until Monday – while I am in Texas. I asked for a rush order, so maybe they will come in Friday (fingers crossed).
One last thing, last Friday I planted a bunch of pepper seeds in my seed starting tray. I am pleasantly surprised that several of them have already germinated, including three Serranos, several sweet peppers, and two very hot peppers. The biggest surprize so far is that the Red Savina Habanero has already poked its head up. It has only been four days and this pepper usually takes weeks. Maybe that is a good sign.
Day 225 – Almost on Track
While today was not what I would call a perfect day diet-wise, it was much better than this weekend. In fact, my only regret for the day is the lack of exercise. I am still kicking myself over this. I woke up at 4:30 and felt okay, but I decided to stay in the warm bed a few more minutes. It all went downhill from there. After hitting the snooze button several times and resetting the alarm twice, I finally gave up and slept until time to get ready for work. I have to admit, I was dreading the cold walk this morning, but I sure wish I had done it. As Ron said in yesterday’s comments, tomorrow is another day.
Even though I didn’t exercise, I did pretty good with my food choices and amounts today. My South Beach Diet meal journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – One cup of Uncle Sam cereal with one cup of ff milk and one small turkey sausage.
- Mid-morning Snack – One lf cheese stick.
- Lunch – The last of the smoked deer shoulder, a small amount of butter beans, a small amount of green beans, and a small amount of navy beans.
- Mid-afternoon Snack – One apple and three tablespoons of natural peanut butter.
- Supper – Roast beef, steamed broccoli, navy beans, and green beans.
- Mid-evening Snack – Nothing.
- Miscellaneous – I ate quite a few sunflower seeds in the shell and drank several cups of coffee.
Today was the second day lately where I have felt like my blood sugar was low. I am not sure what is going on there, but I don’t like it much. Perhaps another day of following the plan better will rectify that.
Day 224 – Compulsive Eating
What a bad day all around for my health. First of all, I did not walk today. Even though I didn’t plan on walking today, it still didn’t contribute positively. That wasn’t the big problem though. The big problem was compulsive eating. While I handle this okay most of the time, today I did not. It seems that when I am under a great deal of stress, I tend to turn to food. Today was no different. The funny thing is that nothing too major was going on, I just didn’t get some projects done this weekend that I had hoped to get done (the weather did not cooperate) and now it is putting me behind schedule. I guess the good news is that this will not be on my mind again until Friday when I have some more time to work on the projects.
My South Beach Diet meal journal for the day is as follows:
- Breakfast – One cup of Uncle Sam cereal with one cup of ff milk and twosmall turkey sausages.
- Mid-morning Snack – One lf cheese stick.
- Lunch – Smoked deer shoulder (mmm!), cole slaw, green beans, butter beans, and navy beans.
- Mid-afternoon Snack – One apple with three tablespoons of natural peanut butter. I also had a cup of ff, plain yogurt with Grape Nuts, flax seed, and lemon Jello powder.
- Supper – Four eggs and four small turkey sausages. Oh, and I also had a half inch slice of Velveta Cheese.
- Mid-evening Snack – One bowl of Grape Nuts, flax seed, and ff milk.
Thank goodness today is over. I am ready to move on to a more positive day. Although it may not look like it right now, Eric is right, this is going to be a strong week.
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