Hmm, could it be?

As we look back in time and look at pictures from late 1800s and early 1900s what we normally see is people of normal weight.  The obesity of our nation really did not begin until the last 70 years or so.  Some would argue that it really did not begin until the late 50s or early 60s.  I have a very clear thought as to why this is.  I am sure I am not the only one who has said this and there are minds much greater than my own who could pin down more specific dates and look at the average diet over that time.  But after my weekend it was made extremely clear.  People "back in the day" worked.  They worked until the job was done.  Many times they did this for survival not for money.  The plowed and shoveled and did hard manual labor.  Many men did this their entire lives, and in that time while the men were out working the fields the women were tending to children, washing clothes by hand, and doing everything we do today... by hand.  Imagine taking the clothes you wear during the week and washing each individual item on a washboard.  We cannot imagine it.  This weekend was as close as I have gotten to real "labor" in many years.  My dad and I hand graded a spot in his yard for a shed.  We then put in a frame and then move 1500 lbs of pea gravel from my truck to the back yard.  So while I did not get the the gym this weekend I am pretty sure I burned as many calories working and I would have in the gym.  I think maybe it is important to try to do a few more things by hand and just be more manual about the way we go about our day to day lives.  I love modern convenience as much as the next guy but modern convenience has also led to and overweight nation.

Starting to come back around... Slowly

I am feeling like I am starting to come back around. I have been eating right most of the week, but have not got to the gym. That should end tonight when I plan to head to the gym late. I might only get in a workout or two before my next weigh in but I would be ok with that considering I did nothing last week. But eating better and getting out last night and mowing the lawn and working up a good sweat made me feel better.

I think life does get in the way as I said before, but I think that I have to make better effort to make sure I get so exercise in and try to make good choices. If mowing the lawn or moving boxes is that exercise then at least it is something. This weekend I will again be carrying boxes up and down stairs for the better part of the day on Saturday. Then Wednesday of next week I head out camping to Roaring River State Park. There are just over 10 miles of hiking trails and I plan to hike every mile while we are there. My 9 year old may not like it to much but I want to get in the exercise and he is on board with my new healthy lifestyle. In addition if I can pick up a bike rack for my truck that does not cost me an arm and a leg I will take my bike down and ride the bike around.

So my attitude is getting better albeit slowly.

Well thats strange, oh and maybe a food find...

Somehow I managed to lose another 1.8 pounds this last week. I will not go into the details my week, but let me just say I was not exactly the model of weight watching this last week. I will be doing better this week. I spoke with my meeting leader about the motivation issue and she assured me that it is perfectly normal. There is also the thought that letting my body and mind rest for a bit may not be a bad thing. So I am calling last week rest week. Tonight I will be mowing the lawn for a bit of calorie burning fun and then back to the gym tomorrow and then hopefully some kind of workout everyday until I head camping on the second of July.

I also found, or was referred to, turkey brats. I found Honeysuckle White Turkey brats. They were... not great, but not bad. You have to understand. My Aunt and Uncle live in Sheboygan WI. And for those of you not in the know Johnsonville Brats are made in Sheboygan Falls. So there were summers spent in the heart of brat country. My family was bringing home coolers of brats packed in dry ice before you could buy them in the grocery store. So when I bite into a brat looking sausage I expect it to taste like a brat. The turkey brat is not really a substitute for the real deal. That said I will keep trying them as I overcooked them a bit because of my fear of food poisoning. So I will report back on the Turkey Brats, but you might want to give them a shot. Turkey brats weigh in at 4 pts and if memory serves Johnsonville original brats roll with 7 pts. So... There ya go.

Preparing for a gain

How does one do this. How do we prepare for a gain? Obviously it is a mental thing. We have to overcome the feeling of complete failure. In this case I do not feel at all like a failure. I know what I did and I know what I did not do. I need to get back on track. I wrote about life getting in the way on my last post mainly because I knew that life would be getting in the way for a few weeks. I have no problem with that. It's life, and moreover it is the lifestyle. I may be a good weight watcher on day and not the next or in the case one week and then not the next. Ultimately it is part of the lifestyle to have some bad days and maybe even a bad week. I just cannot forget what has allowed me to lose 80 pounds.

I also have not been feeling particularly motivated. Hopefully I can change all that this week. Lets talk for a minuted about motivation though. I am figuring out that it is motivation that gets people to their goal. That is why this journey is such a difficult one. Motivation is not something that is easy to come by, it come and goes. I can be there as strong as anything you have felt first thing in the morning and by noon it is gone. Try as we might to look at what originally motivated us we may not be able to see it. In my case, I can do more now with my son and feel so much better. But really I know I am still not at a healthy weight. I have a long way to go. I am still a prime candidate for heart disease and diabetes and other weight related illness.

This week will be better.

Whew!

Good thing I was not complacent. However my attempts to "do more" turned into an average week. A 0.8 loss is nothing to sneeze at and I am certainly happy. In fact as long as I keep the scale headed in the right direction I am cool. So what of my challenge to "do more"? Well......

Life gets in the way and I guess that is why it is a lifestyle. I think that is something new I am picking up on. When I early in the stages of weight watching I would watch everything so carefully and then I started to work out religiously. I would not let "life" get in the way of eating right or working out. That has changed somewhat as spring is turning to summer. I find myself learning that at times life does get in the way and sometimes your not going to eat right and sometimes your not going to get that workout in. I think that key is making sure that you don't let those habits take over. Make sure you eat right and track your intake as much as possible. Make sure you get to the gym or out for a walk or a run as much as you can. But if you let weight watchers and your quest to lose weight get in the way of your life then it is a diet.

So does that men I am getting complacent? I don't think so. I still have a long way to go and I know how to get there. I think it means that my understanding of the peaks and valleys of weight loss is being clarified.

Exercise, Golf, and Anything else I happen to think of.

I have been to the gym every day but friday this week and am feeling pretty good. Not sure what will show on the scale but regardless I know I am doing the right thing. I will be back at it tonight for a late evening workout and possibly in the morning. The morning work out would be the doing more I was talking about.

How else have I done more. Well let me tell you about Saturday. I guess I should first preface this by telling you I have not walked a hole of golf in at least 15 years. Once we had enough money my friends and I always rode. It was about talking to your friends and enjoying a few cold ones. Definitely not about exercise. So Saturday I take my son to Paradise Point Golf Complex and we plan to play the Academy course. The Academy course is 4 holes left over from a major redesign in the late 80's. They kept the holes and I rediscovered them recently. I can take my son out and he has a great time with no pressure. There is rarely any traffic on it and it is a great place to learn. My son will be 10 in January and he thinks driving the golf cart is about the coolest thing ever. so he was a bit disappointed when we were told they had to keep the carts for the tee times at the other two "main" courses. I understood and so I was forced to do more. We walked the course and let me tell you. I was pretty tired afterward. And after the ride home my legs were a bit sore. So I would say that even though it was not by choice I did more that day.

Speaking of golf. How about the US Open? If you enjoy golf then you could not help but enjoy the drama the played out on Sunday. Rocco Mediate hangs on and posts a -1. A wayward drive and lack of distance cost him a real birdie chance on 18. As I sat a watched him make that par putt on 18 I told my Mom and Dad who were over for dinner that -1 would not win this tournament, it may force a playoff, but it would not win it. Then Tiger puts it in the rough on his drive on 18, then promptly hits is second shot in the rough and all of a sudden it looks like Rocco might win. Tiger puts it on the green from the rough within about 15 ft. Everyone knew he would make it. Rocco said as much. So off to an 18 hole playoff today. Truth be told I am pulling for Rocco Mediate for a couple of reasons. First he is a wonderful everyman. People know his name but he is just another guy on tour, but he has been there a long time. He is 45 years old and this is not a tournament won by guys who are past their prime who were never that great in the first place. Second is the fact that he lost a whole bunch of weight and has kept it off. I have searched the internet for an old picture of Rocco and it seems that they don't exist. Regardless he did it and to win the US Open would just be huge.

Good Luck Rocco! Go get em!

Where's my recipe!!!!!!

It's coming it's coming. I have not had a chance to get to the store. Or maybe I am scared to see the prices. Regardless I will have something for you by Monday I promise.

I also wanted to mention that working out in the evening throws me a big curve ball but is great all at the same time. First the curve ball. Going to the gym just takes time and sometimes time is something I do not have a whole lot of. But it also works to my advantage from time to time. In the evening I can really push myself on the elliptical and see if I can go from 45 minutes up to an hour. I have not done that yet, but I have gotten to 50 minutes. The other bonus is that fact that I generally have less time to snack in the evening when I work out in the evening. Oops, curve ball again. The housework really suffers when I don't have time in the evening.

So you see I really have not had a lot of time to try to get that whole Ginger Lemon Chicken put together, but I will make it happen. I promise.

Have a great weekend!

Lets not get complacent

Well I have no idea how it happened but I lost weight this week. Not just a little either. I lost 4.6 pounds. I am not going to complain trust me. I did not cheat the scale by wearing lighter clothes or anything like that. I ate like crap over the weekend and still lost. I do have a couple of theories however.

I have no science to back these ideas up they are just thoughts, but I think it may actually be a combination of the two. The first is that Monday and Tuesday I really drank a lot of water. By a lot I am talking in the neighborhood of 250 ounces of water a day. I think that helped to flush my system of the excess sodium. Second would be the possibility of a 6 - 10 day delay in the results showing on the scale from a good or bad weekend or week. I have seen this first hand early in this whole thing and I think I was pretty complacent after I had a bad week and then posted a loss. I think I was pretty lax about my diet and exercise that week.

So this is no time for complacency. I have posted one gain through this whole ordeal and I would prefer not to do that again for a while. So this week it is back to the gym and eating right and staying on track. Join me this week. Don't be complacent. Strive to do just a little more. Exercise a bit more, eat more vegetables, drink more water. Try something new this week. Tell you what I will come up with a recipe for a Ginger Lemon stir Fry for you guys. I threw something together a week ago and it was really good so I will attempt to duplicate and post it here.

Do just a little more this week. What do you say?

Feeling better

I got a good workout in last night. 45 minutes on the elliptical and some lifting. My diet is back on track and all is well. I will be working harder this week to keep things going than I have in the past few. I will probably work out in the evenings this week. except for this evening. I have my WW meeting and my son is with me. I will continue to work out over the weekend and that will provide me the opportunity to get in a couple of extra workouts. I do love the morning workout because it wakes me up and gets my blood flowing, but sometimes life gets in the way and I have to switch to evenings. I would imagine in a few weeks I will be back to mornings but for now, evenings it is.

I have no expectations this week at the scale. I did sneak a peak on a scale at work that it notoriously inaccurate and it said I might have even lost. I just don't see that as possible. I will take what I get and move forward. This coming week I am striving to have my best week ever. No particularly in terms of weight loose, but in terms of staying on plan and and getting my workouts in. I felt last night how quickly you can get out of shape. 4 days off and I was really feeling it.

I will check in with you tomorrow with an update.

Down

Well folks, this will be interesting. My weekend on the WW front was pretty much a complete bust. There was not binge eating, but there was binge drinking, and lets just say that I did not eat healthy all weekend. But honestly that this not my concern. My concern is this. I am down, way down. I ended up in an argument with my girlfriend about stupid stuff and I feel horrible about it. I ended up missing most of the concert and was pretty much just completely out of line.

This is the problem with all that. When I am depressed I tend to want to do two things. I want to sleep and I want to eat. This might be an interesting week or two. I will need to snap out of it, but it is not going to be today. It was a long weekend and I am exhausted.

Lest you think I am perfect.

I would say that overall I am pretty faithful to my cause, but there are days, and sometimes days that turn into weeks that I am just not all with it. Lets look at the last couple of evenings. It has been muchie city. Night before last it was 2 skinny cow sammys and a couple of bananas. But then last night.... oh last night was worse. 3 packs of 100 cal cookies, and a bowl of chips and salsa.

Now I know these are not horrible choices and I did not flat out empty the pantry, but it was a bit of a binge. I am choosing to recognize it am move forward. My choices were not great but if I look back I would have really gone nuts. I would have destroyed a whole bag of chips and an entire jar of salsa. I am not like that anymore, but that person lurks in the shadows waiting for his chance.

I also have not been great about working out this week. I have got in 1 workout so far since Tuesday weigh in. I would have liked to have gotten in 3. I will try to get in 1 or 2 over the weekend. and then another Tuesday morning. It is funny how it works. You work out you generally have more energy and feel better, but you have this internal struggle to actually go and work out. Oh well there is always tomorrow. If I have learned one thing in this journey it is that we have to stop focusing on the past. Learn from it and move on.

In more fun news I am off to St. Louis this weekend to see the Dave Matthews Band at Busch Stadium. This is sure to be a fun weekend with lots of eating out. I am going to do my best to eat right and stay away from the booze. Wish me luck.

Another number - 75

Well it was a good week! I have now lost exactly 75 lbs! I lost 2.4 lbs this week. I hope that this trend continues and I can follow up this loss with another loss of about the same amount. If not that is fine, but that is what I am shooting for. To that end I will be trying to get in a workout of some sort 6 days this week. This may be difficult as we are headed to St. Louis this weekend. That means hotels and eating out. Hopefully this will not wreck me for the week.

15.75

So what is 15.75 you ask. 15.75 is miles. I got out on my bike last night and road 15.75 miles on it. I road at Smithville lake on a paved trail that runs along the lake and through the woods. I would say it is not a particularly easy ride but it is not hard either. Some people really roll through with no problem and others (me) have a hard time from time to time. I think this will be a very good way to get my knees into shape to do the 5k. Well it will be good to get them into shape in order to begin training. While there is not alot of stress on the knees there is enough to feel it. So if any of you have a bike and want to ride sometime. Lets try to schedule something. My goal right now is to ride at least twice a week if not 3 times. I am not sure I will bust out another 15 miler, but who knows.

In training? Not just yet.

I had thought that I would begin to train for the 5 K this week but I think I am gonna put that off for a bit. I think I need to do more cycling to build up my knees and then begin the training. My goal will still be to run the whole thing. But the schedule I set for myself would have had me ready to go by the middle of August when the run is not until October 18th. So I am going to push things back several weeks.

With that said I suppose that I am in pre-training. I began to hit the elliptical harder over the weekend and I I am gonna get a serious ride in tonight if I do not get rained out. If I do. I will be on the elliptical again. I am still lifting, but I am focusing more on the cardio in order to make my lungs more healthy and drop more weight. I know it sounds crazy, but I would like to get below 300 before I get into the training. Theoretically I have 2 months to do that and then 3 more months to get ready for the 5k. I am not going to hold myself to that goal, but 25 less lbs pounding on my knees would sure be nice.

I will try to keep you up todate on what I am doing when I post.

This weekend was two 50 minutes sessions on the elliptical and I lifted once. When I started working out 5 minutes on the elliptical almost killed me. so to go 50 straight minutes was a big acomplishment.