Winner and another 6 month diet bet

Got my confirmation email this morning from the Dietbet that i won $43.14. I am so excited. I have never won any kind of bet that has to do with a diet or getting my life back. It has been such great motivation that I signed up for the 6 month November-May diet bet where you are supposed to lose 10% of your body weight in the 6 month period. I am already about 10 days behind so I have to pick it up.

 

25 lb mark

This morning I jumped on the scale and was surprised to have hit the 25lb mark! woot woot. That is a great milestone. This is about 1/4 of what I want to lose. I pray that motivation continues not only until I am fit but throughout the rest of my life.

Crappy Sundays and weigh in tomorrow

Yesterday was a tough day. My wife and I were out and about a lot of the day. It made it tough to eat healthy. I ate several things that I probably shouldn't have and the scale showed that this morning as well. Sundays are going to be the tough days to stay healthy because we have family dinners 3 out of the 4 weeks. I don't have much of a choice over what is cooked. I guess I will just have to be more careful and restrain more. Here is to a good week.

I am excited for tomorrow! It is the day that I get to weigh in for the final of the dietbet that I got to be apart of. I lost over my 4% and will be making some money. I have no idea how much but will be excited to see how much. Now to decide if I want to reinvest it into another diet bet over the next month or cash it out. :)

Dont let the voice tell you to quit

 

I have found this quote to be very true the last couple of week. More than likely I will find it more to be true in the future as well. When I started running again last week I ran 1 mile stopped for about 15 minutes and then ran back the other mile. I was completely gassed (or so I thought). Our bodies can do so much more than our minds. If you push through that initial pain your body will understand that it can do it and you WILL succeed .

Jillian Michaels Podcast

I have about a 30 minute drive to and from work everyday. Instead of just listening to music I listen to a lot of podcasts. They are so much more educational and entertaining to me. Sometimes after a long day of work I feel like I may fall asleep. Got to keep my mind engaged. Well, yesterday during the drive to work I was listening to Jillian Michaels podcast. There was this lady that called in with a question about how to get her motivation back. She used to be about 4'11" and 110 lbs but recently got married, went on her honeymoon which was a cruise and is up to about 135lbs. She said that she had gotten lazy and her husband was happy with her. Jillian said something to the effect of how laziness is not an excuse for gaining weight and there must have been another reason. After talking to her for a bit they determined that this lady did not have anything to look forward to with being healthy and fit. She was saying that if we just workout to workout we will fail often. No one enjoys the workout, only the success you feel afterwards. She then said something that hit me. I need to think of things that I will look forward to with being healthy. Yesterday evening I kept thinking of these things. One of the main things is when I go to a clothing store and I see some clothes that I like I want to just be able to buy it no matter what. Right now I have to search to see if they even have my size. It would feel incredible to know that I am a regular size. Next, I would like to be active with my son. Over the last couple of months since he was born we have sat in front of the tv a lot. When he is able to get up and move I want to be a good example to him so he can live his life to the fullest extent and be as happy as possible. I am sure other things will come to mind and things I would like to look forward to but these are just fine with me so far in my journey. Now, I just need to succeed.

The Big Circle run

I just have to say that I am so proud of myself. Yesterday I was wanting to get out and go run but I did not think I was going to be able to do much. Running the day before made my legs way sore. Legs don't like 315lbs pounding on them while running. This is why I can't wait to get the strength back in them. When I first started running I made the decision that I needed to push myself past what I did they night before. It was going to be tough but I knew that I could and would be able to do it. About 1 mile into the run I had the idea that I wanted to make a big loop around my neighborhood. I had no idea how far it was. All I knew is that it was quite a bit further than the day before. It is so incredible how when you first start running you feel good but about 15-20 minutes in you feel like you need to stop because you are sore or tired. I have found that if you push past that point most of the time you catch your second wind (at least for me and my wussy beginner workouts). By the end of the run it was dark outside and pretty cold. When I came to the end I felt like I could run another mile at least but decided that my wife would not be too happy if the dinner got cold. Sometimes it sucks when you are working out but the feeling of pure happiness when you complete is what I look forward to.

I am going to call this run the big circle.

This is one of the most motivating things to me. When i get home I can actually see the work that I did because of my bodymedia armband. Averaging about 20 calories a minute is pretty decent in my book. How does that not make you feel great about what you just did. 

 

Slow and steady! haha. How cool is it going to be when I am able to go back and see how much I have progessed. I averaged about a 14 minute mile. Pretty sad but I just kept telling myself to keep on pushing and that I did.

 

This is the summary of my workout from my bodymedia arm band. 1061 CALORIES WOOHOO! Best calorie burn in one workout so far by a long shot.

Getting back on track

Over the last while as you can tell from me not posting I have not been doing so well with my diet. Where does my motivation go after a month or two? It should be so easy but it isn't for some reason. I need to find what motivates me and what will keep me motivated because it hasn't been working. If you have any ideas or suggestions for me feel free to let me know.

Valentines Dinner

 Usually for valentines day we go out to dinner which turns out bad for my nutrition. I decided yesterday after work I would stop at the grocery store and grab some food and I would make Shaileen dinner for Valentines day. I just have to say that I have the best wife on the face of the planet. I can assure this because she has put up and stayed married to be for the past 4 years. :) I love her.

As you can tell I grilled up some chicken breast in a Hawaiian marinade.I also found some Brown Whole Wheat Rice that comes in little baggies. I usually suck at cooking rice but all you have to do is throw it in a pan with 4 cups of water and let it boil for 10 minutes. It cooked perfectly (in my opinion at least, Shaileen may have another opinion though, haha) I then cut up some Romaine Lettuce and put some seasoning on the top, not sure what it is called though but really good. Light Italian dressing on the lettuce is what finished it up. I ate it as shown on the first picture but shaileen mixed it all up and made it into a salad with rice and chicken.

I would definately recommend the rice baggies, check em out.

Shopping List

Tonight I am going to go grocery shopping finally. It has been a while since we have gone shopping as we have been eating out way too much. As you can imagine it has not been good for my diet and health. As soon as I woke up this morning I knew that I needed to make a grocery shopping list so the moment I got here I started searching online and making a list of what I am going to get. Here is what I have put together.

Grains

• 100% Whole Wheat Bread
• Whole Wheat Tortillas
• Whole Grain Cereal (cheerios,quaker oatmeal squares)
• Brown Basmati Rice

Fruit

• Apples
• Oranges
• Bananas
• Grapes
• Berries
• Dried Fruit
• Canned Fruit (packed in 100% juice or light syrup)

Vegetables

• Romaine Lettuce
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Zucchini
• Red Potatoes
• Frozen Veggies w/o sauce
• Canned Veggies (packed in low salt water and drained before use)

Meat/Beans

• Lean Cut Beef
• Boneless and Skinless Chicken and Turkey
• Lean Cut Lunch Meat
• All Natural Chicken Sausage
• Black Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Pinto Beans

Dairy

• Skim Milk
• 2% Reduced Fat Shredded Cheeses
• Low Fat or Fat Free Yogurts (greek or regular)
• 1% Cottage Cheese
• Reduced Fat String Cheese

Other Snacks

• Reduced Fat Wheat Thins
• Original  Sun Chips 140 cal for 16 chips
• Veggie Chips from Costco
• Snyders Multigrain Pretzel Chips
• 100 Calorie Smart Packs
• Instant Pudding and Jello

How I spend my time

The hour or so spent

in the gym is important...

But the key to results is

how you spend the other 23!

Weigh-In Tomorrow

Can't wait for tomorrow morning to come so I can jump on the scale and see my weight progress. I have decided that for the next while I am not going to weigh in every day and to just weigh in on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I think it will be better for my mind not seeing my weight fluctuate during this process. It is nice seeing the weight drop but I am more excited to get healthy. Thanks to all that watch and view this blog as it helps give me motivation. This is not going to be a thing that is going to be for a couple of months. It HAS to be a lifelong decision.

Enough Said!

How to shop healthy!

I was reading website yesterday while at work about good healthy things to buy at the grocery store. Usually when I go I have a hard time deciding what to purchase and it is always just what I see that sounds good. There was a line on that website that I loved. It said something to the effect of  "stay on the perimeter of the grocery store" that is where all of the healthy stuff is to eat. I had never thought of it that way in the past. Of course there are some things that are healthy on the inside isles but it is safe to stay on the outside. When I went to grab a couple things at Harmons Grocery store yesterday I tried this out other than salad dressing and it worked very well. I plan to use this plan as much as I can from now on.



here is a little diagram of what I found yesterday!



weight training and many miles

Usually I am more of a cardio freak but I have been reading and decided that I need to do some weight training with my cardio. Last night when I went to the gym I first did weights and sit ups before I got too sweaty and feel bad to get the machines all nasty. I did weight training for about 30 or so minutes and focused on back and bicepts. On the myfitnesspal app I found that I can input strength training also. I can input sets, reps and weight. It will be nice to see my progression over the next little while and be able to see how weak I am right now compared to how I am going to be! Also yesterday on the elliptical I did 4 miles, 8 miles on the stationary bike too! I was a sweaty mess when I left. I found a quote today on instagram that said "It took more than a day to put it on. It will take more than a day to take it off. Move" I need to remember this more often because I want instant results. I need to remember that it is my health that I need to keep in mind!

I DONT!

I was reading Shaileen's Aunts blog and I learned somthing so simple but so effective at the same time. You can find her blog here. She was saying how sometimes when we are brought to foods that we are not going to eat because of our new lift change to be healthy we say that WE CAN'T eat it. She was saying that it is a horrible way to look at it. When I am placed with a thing that I can't do sometimes it drives me to do it anyways. They way that we need to think is that I DON'T from now on. I DON'T do it because I am living a healthy life. I think this little mind change can and will make a big difference in my life. I have not had soda in almost 5 years and this is the way I have looked at it with soda. I can't wait to say that it has been 5 years of good healthy eating and for the rest of my life as well!

I had self control

Last night after work we went over to Shaileen's Step Dad's house to celebrate his birthday! They had some good looking German Chocolate Cake and Yellow cake with vanilla ice cream. I had the will power to say no thank you. I understand it is not bad to have something every once in a while but it was not for me last night. I have heard from a podcast as well as other websites that it is good to have a little bit of sweets everyday so you dont have the desire to binge eat in the future. I can see how that works but I don't know how it would work for me. It is almost like giving an alcoholic a sip of beer so they dont crave it. I dont know though, guess I will just have to test it out and see what works best for me. I was a little worried last night when we went over to their house a little late because I knew we would get home late too. I didn't want that to effect my desire to go to the gym. I had the desire though still but did not get there until about 9pm and got home just after 10pm. My legs were absolutely dead from the work out the night before though. I did the best I could and burned about 700 calories in that hour which I was just ok with, a little disappointed but thought I could do better. I am interested to find out how my legs are tonight because as I sit here at work this morning they are sore and tired. Maybe I should just do a weight training day. We will see I guess. By the way, the fruit basket at my desk at work has been great. I know it has been only one day but it is easier to grab something healthy rather than crap that I used to eat! You should try it out!!!!!

4%

This is something good to remember! I want to tell myself that I don't have enough time to get to the gym but I can and will make time to get my life back. Would I rather work out 1 hour per day or be dead 24 hours per day? I saw this quote and absolutely loved it!

Best workout so far!

Tonight I kicked my butt. I went to the gym around 8ish pm and immediately got on the elliptical. My legs felt real good today and could have gone longer but I had the intensity too high at the end so my heart was racing! I put in 35 minutes on the elliptical, about 3.8 miles and 705 calories! I then went and jumped on the stationary bike and rode 7.5 miles in just 25 minutes approx and that included a cool down just like on the elliptical. I feel great tonight and as I lie here in bed I can't stop thinking how proud I am of the work I have put in! I know that this is going to be a long journey and a lifetime of change and commitment but I can and will do it! As for my diet today I did pretty good. I forgot to get up and eat breakfast but for lunch I got a subway sandwich with no cheese and for dinner I had 3 eggs, toast with homeade strawberry jelly and a cup of canteloupe.

9/19/12

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me with getting my life back. I have decided that I need to go grocery shopping real bad because there is not much in our ho use right now! That makes it real hard to eat healthy. Yesterday morning I had a banana and a string cheese, for lunch turkey on a Chibatta bun and an apple and for dinner chicken and rice that Shaileen made. I could have been better but it was pretty good. Last night I made it to the gym too. I was struggling through the first 10 or so minutes on the elliptical but after that I hit my second wind. I did 3.2 miles in 30 minutes and burned about 600 calories with a 5 minute cool down. I also did a bunch of ab gut exercises too. I ended up being there for about an hour or so. I woke up this morning and I am down 8.4 lbs since Monday night! I hope I can keep it up and when that plateau comes I wnat to have the will power to work through it! I CAN DO IT!

The Start

I am making this blog mostly for myself. If you want to check it out and follow that would be great too. I have been struggling with my weight since I was about 16ish. That is when I started gaining weight. The excuse I had in highschool was that I was a lineman on the football team but I was also working out daily with the team as well so I was big but more of a healthy big (if that makes sense). After high school I didn't have a reason to work out so I didn't for a couple of years. One day about 5 1/2 years ago I decided I needed to change my life and get back in shape. I made the concious effort to get a gym pass to 24 hour fitness and went daily and if not some times twice a day. I was eating real good every day. I also made the effort to not drink any soda anymore. No carbonation at all. I went about 6 months or so and lost about 50-60 lbs if I remember correcly. For some reason or another I got off of the weightloss bandwagon and started eating bad again. The thing I have been proud of myself for is for these 5 1/2 years approx I have never had carbonation at all thoughout this long time. It has been the only constant in my life and I plan to continue with it. Over the past couple of years I have been doing the all to famous yo-yo diet losing 25-40 lbs at a time. My wife this past week got real sick and asked me to take her to the hospital. We found out that she has gallstones and she has to have surgery this coming week to get her gallbladder taken out. We eat the same food for the most part every day and if she is having these problems there is a good chance I am not far off as well. On Monday night I was contemplating this and so I got up and went to the gym and got a good sweat on. I don't know why it is so hard for me to get my butt up and go to the gym because I always feel so much better when I do. Hopefully with this blog it will give me a little more motivation to get up and get healthy and get in shape. If you do follow I appreciate it and any words of motivation, encouragement, or advise is certainly welcome. Wish me luck!