July 1st -- Advice for Others and Myself

Well six months of 2010 are down!!  I can't believe how quickly the time has passed.  Truthfully I thought that the scale would read a lot lower than it does at the moment.  Currently, I a fluctuating between 270 and 275, which is between 46 to 41 pounds lost. In January, I had hoped that I would be passed the 50 pound mark by now.  However, I am currently very happy with my progress.  And I thought that this would be a good time to share my thoughts because I know some people who are fighting this fight along with me and might benefit from me sharing a bit more than the details of my workout.  Also, I know that I need to stop and listen to myself from time to time.  Today I was reading The Fat Man's 180 Day Experiment   and Scott was talking about his injury and feeling discouraged today,and even though I am sure he didn't really need my advice I decided to offer some and as I wrote I just felt like I was talking to myself as much as I was Scott, so I decided to make this post.

 Today I am Sporting the Ankle brace. My Achilles is giving me problems, and it is getting to the point where I may need to shut things down if it doesn't improve over the next week or so. I have had so many tweaks, pulls, and strains over the last 8 months -- it is all part of the journey  Just remember that it will pass and you will be mentally stronger for having gotten past it.   Here are some of the injuries I have encountered along the way:

Strained Hip Flexor

Strained Rotator Cuff

Sprained Middle Finger

Groin Pull

Wisdom Tooth Removal

Strained Neck & Shoulder Blade

Knee and Hamstring Pulls

I am making this list for two reasons.  1) I have gotten past each one of these injuries.  You have to expect injuries when you are over weight, out of shape, and begin a lifestyle change.  The injuries are going to come, but you will move past them. They are part of the process.  In fact they are a pretty good indication that you are getting your body out of it's comfort level and it is resisting.  Of course, you should do everything you can to prevent injuries, but you must push yourself and expect injuries to occur.  2) This process is more about reshaping you mind than it is about reshaping your body.  You have turned the corner when you realize that it is not the external changes that matter but the internal changes.  I had the physical strength to do 50 pushups long before I had the mental strength to do it. 

I know that it is really hard not to focus so much on the scale, but the day to day fluctuations are maddening. Honestly, the scale is a really poor indicator of your effort.  Yes, I want to see the number on the scale get smaller, but I am much more interested in being able to run 5 miles. I won't care what weight I am at when I do that for the first time. I won't care if I am 270 or 265; I'll be happy that I was able to push myself to do it.  We are so focused on the scale that we lose sight of the fact that it is only a number. It is the effort and work that matters. One person's 260 is not the same as another person's.  What is important is how you feel about yourself, and no number is really going to feel as good as the satisfaction that you get from pushing yourself farther than you thought possible.  

It is better to trust your eyes when you look in the mirror than the numbers on the scale.  Take time to stare at yourself in the mirror.  Look at your cheekbones, you shoulder blades, stare deeply into you own eyes, it is not vanity.  It is getting reacquainted with the person that you have wanted always wanted to be.  I can always tell that I am doing good work by the weight I have lost in my face. I'll often wait a few days to shave because the weight loss is really apparent when I shave. And after I have taken notice of that, that is when I will look myself in the eyes and try to assess the more important internal changes.  At the beginning of this post, I said that I thought that scale would be reading a much lower number by now.   But, I am really much more happy with where I am than I could have imagined.  I have put in a lot of hard work and my body has changed a lot, but what makes me most happy is the mental strength and inner peace that I am discovering.  I always thought that I was dissatisfied with my physical appearance and that was why I was unhappy, but I was really dissatisfied with the internal aspects of myself that let me get to where I was physically. 

Saturday Workout & February Frustrations

Honestly, February has been a pretty good month overall considering the weather has been crappy and I have had some minor pains. Also, it has been kind of frustrating on the scales because despite all of my efforts this month, my weight has stayed almost exactly where it was at the beginning of the month. There are several factors that I am sure have contributed to this weight loss stagnation, such as my body changing from fat to muscle or my body has adjusted to my level of workouts. These are answers that I would like to be true, and I am sure that they are to some degree, but there is another factor that I am sure has a lot to do with this: Diet. Yes, the dreaded Diet!!!

My diet isn't horrible. I eat lots of fruits and veggies (apples, oranges, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, celery, grapes, raisins, zucchini, ect.) and I have eliminated things like chips, French fries, soda, fast foods, and vending machine snack fare. But, I am still eating way too much bread and sweets. Also, on nights when my wife works late I find myself snacking hard around 5:30 because I know that we will not eat dinner until nearly 10pm, which is not good. Luckily, my wife will no longer be closing her store, so this should eliminate that problem. However, I know that I need to become much more disciplined about the way I eat or I will be wasting a lot of my effort. Personally, I do not put much stock in diets or "going on a diet." My feeling is that "going on a diet" implies that at some point the person will go off of the diet, which will lead them to return to their former ways. Instead, I prefer to make lifestyle changes, which are intended to be lasting changes. I see lifestyle changes as more of a process, something that allows for indiscretions, but overall takes a much larger commitment. I am trying to achieve a lifestyle change by eliminating soda from my diet. And, I know that I have to get better about how often I snack and eat sweets. Granted, I am doing better now than I have at any other time in my life, but there is still room for improvement if I want to move past the frustrations of February, changes in the way I eat are sure to help.

As for working out, I had a really good workout yesterday. I struggled a bit at first because I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but in the end I was able to sort myself out and put in a good overall effort.

First I did 20 exercises for 1 min. each with a 15 sec. rest. then moved on to the Jump ropee

Saturday's Workout:

1 min. each with a 15 sec. rest
1. Crossover Crunch Left
2. Crossover Crunch Right
3. Standard Crunch
4. Arm Extensions
5. Bird Dogs
6. Fire Hydrants w/ leg extension
7. Heel Raises
8. Squats with 10lbs weight.
9. Alternating Lunges with 10lbs weight.
10. Prisoner Squats with leg ups
11. Triceps Extensions with 10lbs. weights
12. Step ups right leg
13. Step ups left leg
14. Bicycles
15. Seated Crunch
16. Push ups
17. Plank
18. Roman Chair
19. Dips
20. Bicep curls with 10lbs weights

Afterward, I did Jump Rope intervals:
20 Intervals 90 seconds skips and 15 seconds rest.

The jump rope portion of this workout was a beast, and I was so sweaty that by the end I was having a hard time holding on to the rope.