The weekend that was

Well I feel much better about this weekend than I do the last. I ate 100% better than last weekend. Got in a workout on Saturday morning. A late evening on Saturday night prevented a Sunday morning workout, but I will either be walking or riding my bike tonight. Even though my goal was to work out every day up until weigh in I am not upset that I missed a day. I feel like the first step to leading a healthier lifestyle and losing weight is to make better choices. I did that this weekend. Second will be to get more active. I am pretty much back on the horse in that regard, I just need to find a schedule that really works for me. The early morning thing is good cause that is when I have time, but as the sun is staying high in the sky later into the evening I want to stay up later, and that leads to a lack of sleep to try to roll out of bed at 4:50am.

Ultimately when it come to my weight loss journey this weekend was great. I am beginning to realize that this indeed is a long process and my early success may have blinded me to that. I am starting to feel less guilty for not making to the gym but still realize that I need to make sure I am moving more. More that anything I feel more in control in situations in the past where I would be doomed for failure. Yes this was a good weekend.

I hope all of you had a great weekend. Happy Mothers Day to all you Moms out there.

Took till friday, but I am back on the wagon.

Well what can I say. I guess I should take my own advice. I should read my own blog as really it exists for the purpose.

I finally feel like I am back on the wagon today after just over a week off. I feel much better today and really had I just looked back I would have realized why I was feeling down and had so little energy. Going back to the gym this morning and getting on the elliptical for a half hour and then hitting the weights felt good. I feel much more awake this morning and feel like I am more ready to face the day.

A few observations of my time off the wagon. I seemed to eat out of boredom and depression more. The urge to snack was much greater than normal. I was just dog tired most of the time. Which makes me wonder, was that how I was feeling before? Was I really that tired? Was I that down? I am guessing probably not, but I can tell you that hoping off the wagon for a week will not be advised in the future. It is an extremely slippery slope that can lead you right back where you started pretty quickly. I personally feel a step off the wagon is fine. Any one of those meals I mentioned in my last post would have been fine but when combined I just hoped on the slide and pushed myself along.

I will not be taking the weekend off this week as I want to make sure to stay on track. My plan right now is to go to the gym, tomorrow (Saturday),Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I will rest Wednesday and Get back Thursday and Friday. Then the following week I will be back on the normal weekday schedule. I hope to begin training for the 5K in the week of the 19th.

Thank you to everyone for the support and the kicks in the butt. I really needed it. This felt like a tough test and I am sure there will be more to come. I just pray that you will all be around to pull me back up when I fall again. I will be there for all of you.

A 1 lb gain and Addiction

I will just go ahead a say it. I gained 1 lb. I knew it was coming and honestly I was not upset about it until about 9pm last night. I weighed in at 5:15 and stuck around for the meeting and then proceed to my friends house to continue working on their deck. I had a wonderful dinner there and then came home. When I got home I was still a bit hungry (or so I thought) so I went to the fridge and grabbed leftover pizza! 3 slices later I was feeling horrible. Which brings me to the real topic of the day. Addiction.

Hello, my name is Matt and I am a foodaholic. I eat for many reasons and hunger is probably last on the list. Lets first take a look at enjoyment. I do enjoy preparing and eating good food. But anymore the enjoyment derived from an unhealthy meal or snack is very short lived. Then there is depression. This one is particularly bad because of the downward spiral effect. You enjoy eating something bad for a short time and then you get upset about it. What better way to cure that depression then eating more bad foods? Yes eating out of depression is not a good thing. Boredom. The worst of my foes. I eat because I am bored. God forbid I read a book or clean the house. Nope, crack open a bag a chips and dig in while the cable TV washes over me. And then we get to hunger. Hmm what is hunger. Do I know it. Do I really understand it? I know I can go a whole day without eating if I am busy and not feel hungry, and yet other times I can't go an hour. Do I eat because I am hungry? I would say probably not.

So I think there is an underlying issue at hand with all of this. I think the I along with many others are stricken with food addiction. An addiction to sugars and fats and salts. An addiction that allows us to rationalize poor decisions. This addiction might be the toughest of all to face. While I have never been an alcohol or drug addict and cannot speak to their experience I see one key difference to the addictions. In order to sustain life one must eat. You do not need alcohol, drugs or tobacco to live. Food and water however are needed. So while trying to battle this addiction we must still eat. We cannot quit cold turkey, and try as we might to eliminate the fats and sugars from our diets we simply cannot.

So my question is this for today. Are you addicted to food? I feel that I am. How are you overcoming it?

Weigh In day - Back on the wagon

After a few days off the wagon I am back on. I want to say a couple of things.

Jay - Not your fault. You did not tie me down a force feed the delicious In-a-Tub tacos down my throat.

I am not all that unhappy that I did fall off the wagon. It is most definitely a learning experience. First as I stated before, your body does not process food the same way anymore and when you throw a bunch of crap in it, there is a digestive system revolution. Second once your off the wagon getting your lazy ole bones back on said wagon is difficult. Your motivation wanes and you begin to think about the convenience of having pizza for dinner and McDonald's for lunch.

The other thing I am wondering about is this. The theory that eating different foods throws your metabolism for a loop and kicks it back into high gear. This was mentioned on an episode of the Biggest Loser this year. All I have to say is that it would sure be nice if that were the case. Obviously I will keep you all updated with that one because if anyone threw their metabolism for a loop this weekend it was me.

So that pretty much brings us up to date. Tonight is Weigh In if they are open as the tornado did some damage to the building they are in.

Build a Deck, Eat like crap and its a good thing.

I did not track anything this weekend and mentally I do not feel awful about it. But let me outline the weekend quickly. Friday was fine until our waited brought out a free dessert. Who was I to say no to free dessert. Still all in all, not awful. Let move along to Saturday. I figure points vs activity I was fine. We were building a deck I and we worked for probably 10 hrs. So I ate a breakfast burrito and then did not eat again till dinner and I have 3 slices of pizza and a big salad. No problem there. Sunday was again probably fine but We had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, In-a-Tub tacos for lunch (for those of you who don't know, it is a corn tortilla stuffed with meat and beans and then deep fried, cracked back open and topped with lettuce, sauce and powdered orange cheese like you use for box mac and cheese. YUMMY) I had sonic popcorn chicken and tots just before bed. Nothing particularly healthy over the weekend. But I am not all that upset about it. We worked a lot and got a lot done. In fact it may have been a good thing. Last night after finishing the popcorn chicken I feel like I was gonna hurl. I drank a glass of water and got ready for bed and quickly fell asleep. I woke up this morning and still felt crappy. So I think something might have been learned from all this. Are you ready for this revelation? All that crappy food combine will make you not feel so good after eating right for so long. I think I would have been fine if I had just one or the not so great items but all of them pushed me over the edge. So I will keep you posted. hopefully I will feel better over the next several hours.

This is what we built.

Rambling

No fun title today as this one is kind of a record for me to refer back to, Sorry y'all.

We had pizza last night. I had three glorious slices and put the pizza away for the night. That was dinner and I was out of daily points. Then I proceeded to have a WW shake, a couple of handfuls of popcorn (not the good for you kind either), and to top it of a bowl of soup before bed. The soup was a veggie with some whole grain penne pasta.

I am trying to figure out why I was more hungry last night. I am wondering if the pizza is so carb laden and lacks the protein I need. I might have to experiment with that and see if that is really the case. The decisions I made after the pizza were not horrible but I really dont like dipping into my weekly flex points. I need to have some point free options in the house. Carrots, celery, other veggies.

This just teaches me that I still have lots to learn when it comes to nutrition and my body. It also tells me that I need to assert more will power and try to not eat out of habit, boredom or stress. I did not think that the storms that rolled through last night would have caused me to stress eat, but I suppose it is possible.

On to the other ramble of the day. Don't let anyone ever tell you walking is not exercise. I walked the tree miles on Wednesday night and I am still sore from it. Not sore in a hurting way, sore in a good way. If I intend on doing this 5K I will need to keep working on it. Running the whole thing will be a challenge, but that is really what I am all about. With that said I am taking a few days off from the gym. I did not go this morning and will not go over the weekend. Monday I will be back with more focus. I intend on using the treadmill a bit more to begin to train for the 5K.

Zack if you happen to be reading this the KC Marathon/Half/5K is Oct 18th and I can use that time for the World Wide Half /5K. I would love it if you and I could run it together. I know you are really busy and I know it would be a stretch but if possible I would really like to cross the finish line with you.

That is all for today, not sure how the weigh in is gonna treat me next week, and at this point I am not sure that I am that concerned. I am learning and I think that is the difference with WW. Learn to live as opposed to learning a diet.

I am just beat.

I am sure I have posted about this but it is worth saying again. Exercise in the morning is far superior to exercise in the evening, in my opinion.

Last night I went and walked. I walked 3 miles in just under an hour. I was not pouring sweat like I do on the elliptical, but it was a good workout. In fact I think I am going to start adding that to my routine. Whether it is on the treadmill or just outside I am gonna start to walk more. Partially in preparation for the 5k I signed up for, but also because it is just different. Over time I will work up to running portions of it, but for now I need to work on the walking and build up the strength in my knees.

So why the title? Well I tried to wake up to get to the gym this morning and just could not do it. I was able to work out Monday night and make it in Tuesday morning, but I think my turn around workout limit it 1 per week. So hence forth if I end up working out / exercising in the evening, I will not be working out the next morning. I lose all the energy return goodness from the morning workout if I worked out the night before. Not to mention I am helping to build a deck this weekend. I am not sure what kind of activity points I get for that but I am sure it would be a few.