Don't short change yourself

This is the battle I have every morning at the gym. It begins with the battle to wake up on time, and not hit the snooze button (which I inevitably do - at least twice). Then it's get dressed and off to the gym. Once at the gym, I am fully aware of the time, and I know what time I have to leave to be to work on time. You see, 3 years ago when I lost all my weight, my employer at the time had 'flex time', which meant that I could come in as late as 10am if I wanted to, as long as I got my work done, and as long as I got at least 40 hours in for the week. Now, I work at a place that is not as flexible, and I HAVE to be there by 8am. Hence, the workout is done by 7:15 sharp, so I can shower, dress and commute. So, what does this long winded explanation mean? It means that I often end up short changing myself in the gym - timewise - workout wise, maybe only getting in about 30 min of exercise.

I read somewhere last week that Jillian Michaels had said that you need at least 45 min of continuous exercise to make the workout 'worth it'. So, worth it how? Well, while any amount of exercise is a good thing, getting up to or past that 45 minute mark is where your body starts have the afterburn - which is your body kicking up your metabolism post workout. I've read this in other places too, and I believe it to be true. While my results have been decent this time around, there are not what I was getting 3 years ago. In 2008, I was getting in 45min to 1 hr workouts at the gym, sometimes more - and I was seeing much higher weight loss numbers each week.
So, the shortchanging part comes into play, of making the decision to get up earlier, get to bed earlier, eating right. I mean, I'm getting to the gym, so I may as well get the maximum effect out of it.

Anyway - this weeks #'s.

Down 3 lbs. 20lbs total in 4 weeks.
Bodyfat % remained the same.

I'm excited that my daughter does not have an indoor soccer game tomorrow at freaking 7am - yeah! this means I can go to the gym!

Good and Bad

The good was losing 3 lbs this week (weigh in last Friday). The cool part of it was actually gaining body mass and losing fat. I lost 3.5 lbs of fat, and gained 0.5lb of muscle.

The Bad was having an extremely busy day Friday an Saturday, not getting to work out, and eating lots of things I shouldn't have.

Have to get back at it this week, to keep going, in spite of it all!

Finding the weight-loss program that works for you - ksl.com

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Read this on KSL.com today. I wholeheartedly agree with what the story says. There is no 1 way to lose weight.
You have to find what works for you. The major barrier is knowing what to do AND then doing it. Everybody knows what they should do, it's just doing it that we have a tough time with.


Finding the weight-loss program that works for you - ksl.com

BTW - 4 lbs this week (weight check last Friday).
Overall Weight: Down 14 lbs
BF%: Down 1.5%

Great workout this morning. Managed to move my wake up time 15 min earlier. Maybe someday, I'll be able to get up
at 5am to workout. For now, 5:45 is proving to be enough of a challenge.

Decisions

It's the decisions you make in the small moments that have the greatest effect. These decisions and their consequences can have a ripple effect on many other feelings and behaviors down the road.

This morning, at 6am, it was 'do I get up and go to the gym, or climb back in my warm bed?" The bed won, until the snooze alarm had to be silenced. Then the simple thought went through my brain.... "I don't want to be fat any more". Time to go to the gym. And so I did.

Which path do you choose?

I'm Baaaack!

How many times do I have to start over at this???? Answer: As many as it takes to get it right, or give up and die.

I can sit around and be depressed about the fact that my last effort lasted for all of 7-8 weeks.
I can sit here and feel sorry for myself.
I can say I just don't care, and start thinking about picking out a casket.

Or NOT!

This week has been great. I got back to the gym - 4 days this week. I feel awesome. Yes, I'm totally out of shape, but I feel great today.

It's the keeping it going I obviously struggle with. Not losing my motivation has got to be my focus. I've got to commit to healthier habits, food, gym, sleep, IN SPITE OF what life throws at me. ( I stole that from my sister, and she from her husband).

I almost feel embarrassed for losing the 10 lbs I lost this week. It should have never been there in the first place! I've been by this place in the scale so many times, they are going to remove the number from the scale and just put my name there! Never the less, I'm going in the right direction, and that is what counts.

So, the gym is back in play. Regular visits to the diet clinic are happening Eating better is the order of the day. The spreadsheet and the numbers and goals that go with it are updated and staring me in the face each day.

This is how it goes.

Press on.

Catching up and notches

I didn't report in last week cuz I was going out of town. But I did weigh in, and I had lost 6 pounds for that week. Today was another weigh in and I lost 4 pounds this week.

So, overall, I'm down 25 pounds in 4 weeks. Wahooo!

Being off of Diet Coke hasn't been too bad, but I still crave it every now and then.

Part of the fun of loosing weight is having your clothes get looser, and getting back into clothes you used to fit in. Belts fall into this too.
Below is a picture of the belt I have on today.

It's a little hard to see, but when I first got this belt a few months ago, I was using the second to the last notch. You can see it has the most wear. As I added pounds, I had to go to the last notch. Crap! Then what, I either have to drill a new hole, or buy a new belt. Well, as I've been coming back down, after 2 weeks of eating right and exercising, I went back to notch#2. And then today, another 2 weeks later, I went to notch #3 (it hasn't been used before - cool). And so it goes.
Many times you hear (with respect to sports) "It's a game of inches". In this case it's true. Taking care of business 1 notch at a time.

Friday #s

Another Friday, another weigh-in.

Down 5 more this week.

I was hoping for a few more, but I was a slacker this week, and missed workouts on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Tues and Thurs just cuz I could not get out of bed. Wed was due to going to Cub Camp for the day. But I got there this morning.

Hoping for better consistency next week in getting to the gym, and hopefully better results.

I've finally decided to narrow it down to one scale. I have one at home that is pretty accurate. I will go with that for my weekly weigh-ins. The one at the gym is good, and the one at MD diet is good too, but I'm always wearing different clothes when I weigh-in. The one at home can be done with no clothes - hence, no varying with the clothing weight. I'll still use the other scales, but they won't be my 'standard'.
I'm still managing to make good food choices. It's still hard sometimes (like the other night when I took my wife and son out for frosty's and I got nothing :-( . But, when I got home, I had SF Jello pudding w/ added protein - which is a pretty tasty treat.