Reflection Friday

Son at Roaring River playing some wiffle ball.

So this Friday morning I am thinking about a few things that have changed. I think probably the best thing of all is my attitude. Prior to starting this journey my attitude has kinda crappy. I tried to be to fun loving guy that everyone knew, but it was getting harder and harder. Now I just feel better. I feel like I can take on anything. I am sure there are a number of things that contribute to it but I will point out the few that I believe to be the most significant. First is just pure health. Eating right and exercising for the first time in my life had had a huge impact. Which leads me to number 2. I think exercise is just huge. You cannot get from caffeine or a drug what you get when you work out and get your blood pumping. It just never fails. I am always more awake and have a better outlook on my day when I get up and go to the gym. The third is difficult to explain but I will try. I think success has a lot to do with my attitude as well. I think that can also be something to be wary of. If we are not losing at the pace we feel like we should or if we have gained we need to make sure we refocus out energy.

Other thing to reflect on? Well I have a story for you. One of incredible laziness and one of personal triumph. Just last summer I was playing wiffle ball with my son and he would regularly hit the ball over the fence. Last summer it was always his job to go get the balls. God forbid that I walk my lazy butt to go get them. Well this spring is a bit different. He goes and gets some. I go and get some. I even ran to get a few when I had my tennis shoes on. Then yesterday he and I actually raced to go get a ball. I struck me then that I am in much better shape and because of that I am spending better time with my son. Now that is why I am doing this!

Have a great weekend all!

I am not sure what to say.

I am a bit in awe right now. I am not sure how to feel or how to act. I want to jump up and down and scream and yell but for some reason it doesn't seem right. This week I lost 5.4 pounds. I can tell you this is a result of hard work at the gym, eating on plan nearly all week, and lots of water. I have now lost over 70 pounds. 70. Just crazy.

In a conversation with my brother last night he brought up my only regret in this whole journey. He said "you are doing awesome, but don't you kind of wish you had done this 10 years ago?" I of course wish I had and that is my biggest regret but ultimately as he said. Going to Weight Watchers took a lot of maturity. He probably does not realize what a compliment that is. I think it is like a drug addict realizing that he has a problem and checking themselves into rehab.

So why am I not jumping up and down. A couple of reasons. First one is I am beginning to notice that other WWers are less motivated by my success and more jealous of it. I am not sure how to deal or if I should even bother to deal with this. Regardless I am noticing. Second is I am kind of in awe of my success. Not sure why 70 pounds is such a big deal, but for some reason it is. I would have thought 100 but for some reason 70 has me looking back and realizing that I am doing something right now that most people have a hard time with.

I want to take a moment to thank my readers. You guys are great. If I am void of things to say prior to the weekend I want you all to have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Starting to notice

Well Monday morning and I figured I should post a little something.

There are a few things I am starting to notice. The first is not as good financially. I am going to need new shorts for the summer. I think I have 1 pair that look alright. The rest I am swimming in. Good sign, but it will be costly. I guess I knew it was coming, but I was hoping that maybe I could get away with it for a bit longer. I guess next weekend might be spent trying on clothes ans making a trip to the Salvation Army.

The second and third I had begun to notice a few weeks ago but kinda did not think a lot of it until last night and again this morning. My brother mentioned something about when he lost some weight the he felt better in the car. Granted my brother is nowhere near my size but he is almost as tall and from time to time he will fluctuate up and down about 25 lbs or so. When he mentioned this it really brought to light how much better I "fit" in my truck now. It was never a huge issue and never uncomfortable. But I just feel better now. The other is somewhat related and is more personal and public. I have stopped requesting a table at restaurants. 5 months ago I had trouble in booths. Sometimes it would be fine and others it would be a very tight fit. Well I went to dinner with my girlfriend and a couple of friends last night and was really very comfortable in the booth. That was a very nice feeling.

So thats about it for today. I will check in with you all tomorrow after weigh in. It will be 16 weeks on WW. They do something special once you get to 16 weeks. I guess it is because they feel like your beginning to make the lifestyle changes necessary to continue on throughout your life at that point. I will let you know what happens and how it goes.

Workin out

Well I had a fist this morning. I went to the gym and did something I have not been able to do just yet. First though I should tell you how this all began.

Each time I go to the gym I hop on the elliptical and do my best. When it all began I was doing 5-10 minutes before and about 5 minutes after my weight training. After a couple of weeks of that I talked to the trainer and she said I should be doing it all at once, so I began doing 20 minutes at a time and I am now up to 30 minutes on a level 3. All of this is pretty much trivial, but the cool thing is this. Every time I had hopped on before to day I would have to occasionally support my weight to catch my breath. Today, I never did it. I stayed with it the whole time. I burned my normal 700 calories and felt great. From now on the goal is not now have to do that anymore.

Also on a side note. When I began this process I was bench pressing a meager 70 lbs at 3 sets of 10. I know I know it is incredibly weak. You would be shocked how little you use your upper body when you weigh 400 lbs. The flip side of that is that I can do a leg press of over 350 lbs. Back to the bench press. I started at 70 and now I am doing 3 sets of 10 at 105. Thats a 50% increase in just a couple of months.

Whenever I start complaining again remind me to reread my blog. I was such a pansy a week or so ago. I just need to buck up and face it that there are times when you fall off the wagon and you just have to pick yourself up and hop back on.

WW Graph

I figured since I hit the 50lb mark at WW I should share the graph again. I do enjoy watching that line go down.

Holy Crap!

Umm this was unexpected. After basically a week back on the wagon and getting in 4 workouts from last weigh in till this one I was expecting a loss, but nothing like what I saw. I had my biggest loss to date. 15 weeks into this and I dropped a mind blowing 7.4 pounds. Did you hear that. 7.4 pounds. I am not sure what happened but I have a few thoughts. The first is probably sodium. The 1 pound gain last week was likely sodium. Lots of fried things on the weekend of food debauchery. The second could be the whole throwing your body a curve ball is good thing, but I am not really buying it. If I really think about it I think what happened was this.

The few days prior to "the" weekend I was on track and probably had a loss during that time. "The" weekend caused some weight gain and retention of some serious water. The result: a gain of one pound. The next week I am back on plan and the water weight flies off along with a few "actual" fat pounds. So what is todays lesson.

Well the first would be to never enjoy the greasy yummy foods I so thoroughly enjoyed on that particular weekend, but that is unrealistic. So the lesson is this. Enjoy something from time to time and realize that not only are you adding fat to your body, but your likely going to retain some water too.

I was so happy to see that number. I instantly felt better about the prior week and instantly realized that I did not need to beat myself up. I felt like I did pretty good about not getting to upset about it, but I was upset to some degree. I think that bogging the experience will help in future gains. Remembering what happened and how I handled it will be key to future success.

Weigh in day and I am excited and a little recipe

As you all know by now it is Tuesday and that means it is weigh in day and I am excited. Not because I think I dropped 10 lbs this week. But because I am officially all the way back on the wagon. My feet are not hanging off or anything. I am firmly planted right in the middle and feel very much in control. I am sure I will be thrown from the wagon again at some point, and probably sooner than I would like, but for right now I am very happy with where I am at. So bring on the weigh in. I'm ready!

I did promise a small recipe in the title so lets get on with it.

This was inspired from 2 unused limes left on the counter this morning. What I created was a very light and fresh dressing that just feels a bit tropical.

Honey Lime Salad Dressing (Single Serving)

Juice of 1 and 1/2 limes (about 2 Tbs)
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp ground mustard
salt and pepper to taste.

Looks like about 3.5 pts, but you might wanna check that.