Monday morning quarterback once again, not too bad though but things could have gone better this weekend. On Saturday My mother in law had us over for dinner along with Wify's sister's family and I decided early on that I was just going to enjoy the meal and that's what I did so I was over by a lot on Saturday, I did go for a walk and do some light strength training so it wasn't all bad. Sunday went perfectly with intake and exercise, I went on a 2 mile walk and completed it in 35 minutes flat so that is a pretty good pace @ almost 4mph so I was happy with those results, the plan was to walk around the entire lake (more than 3 miles) but it was getting dark and I was not going to make it to the wooded part of the walk before it got dark and I am still unfamiliar with the trail so I took a shorter route. Squeezing in some strength training (mostly body weight movements) is becoming a part of my day that I look forward to, after my walks I have been doing a light dumb bell routine along with some push ups and squats and feel good about how it is going so far.
Last week I was inputting my weight for the past 2 months into my "weight graph" which is an excel sheet that we made and I have been keeping track of my weight on it so that I may have a visual depiction of what I have done, yea I know that a mirror serves the same purpose in my case but the graph really is eye opening to see trends. I thought I would pop a screen capture up here showing my progress from January 2008 until last Fridays weigh in just for kicks so that anyone interested could see it in graph form, the image is clickable so that a full sized view can be had.
Click the image for a full sized view
Over the weekend I got more than a few comments pointed in the direction of "you really look good" or "it's amazing how you have been able to maintain this for so long" and I have to admit that I enjoy hearing things like that, but then who wouldn't? I started thinking about it though and "being able to maintain it for so long" is something that I have even heard in comments on this blog and is kind of the point of this whole thing, I mean thin people maintain it all of the time don't they? fit people maintain this lifestyle on a daily basis without flinching right? how come no one says to a very fit person "Hey that's amazing that you are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle like that" I love getting complimented, C'mon we all do but isn't that one kind of a back handed compliment? Like the fat guy should be praised for being able to not eat cake, I guess the way that I look at is like this. I don't think it is amazing that I have maintained this eating right moving more program for the last almost 17 months, I see it more as I have re-learned how to not eat wrong, I am not really maintaining a "diet" so to speak, I am now maintaining what every other person on the planet that does not have a weight issue does daily, the only difference is that I was once 534 pounds.
I think that is the mindset that we as over weight people need to get over, we are no different than any other person in this world, besides the fact that we weigh twice as much as most of them! but hey we're working on that part right? right?? yes I am talking to you! I am no different than the very nice woman that I walked about 1/4 mile with yesterday while out on my walk, I am no different than the very fit very intense looking woman that made me think twice about my discipline a couple weeks ago, That older fella that runs around the lake that I live on like he is Forest Gump? no different, not one bit. If we walk through a crowded store or park and randomly choose 6 people based on nothing other than they happened to be the next random person, each and every one of them would be capable of choosing to eat properly and exercising enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle but no one would ever call it amazing.
Myself, the woman from last night, very fit very intense woman and Forest are all completely different people on completely different levels of fitness/health and at the same time we are all very much the same. I have no clue whether any of those other people have ever been over weight or not, for all I know Forest may have started running because he too was once a quarter ton man, but I have learned that I don't find that the fact he runs around this lake seemingly for hours some times amazing, He is just a man doing something that he is capable of for unknown reasons to me. At 534 pounds that feat would have been amazing to me, at my quarter ton weight I had honestly loathed people for walking! seriously! I can remember thinking to myself as I sat on the couch "why would anyone want to walk around with no where specific to go?" I honestly had that thought at one point in my life and shortly thereafter I decided to lose weight and get healthy again, I at some point realized that the statement above was the statement of someone that was giving up, and I was not going to give up, that was a state of mind that is not a good place to be.
I believe that anyone can do whats right for themselves, Losing 200 pounds is a feat for sure, I am just unsure that it is amazing because once we are in the right mind set it becomes second nature to eat correctly and exercise more. I do not smoke and never have but is it amazing that I am more than 30 years smoke free? no because smoking is not something that we need to do to survive and neither is over eating. I often hear people say that eating is something that we need to do to survive so it is somehow different than other addictions and though I can agree with that concept and I know first hand how hard getting over that hump is I cannot agree with that philosophy for more than one reason that I may get into in a later post. Its almost like those dead beat dads out there that expect people to give them praise for paying their tiny little child support payments, saying things like "I pay my child support I am doing my part man" There is nothing special about paying child support, it is expected and it is our duty as fathers to support any children that we bring into this world and I look at it that way. its just eating right and exercising and is what should have been done from the beginning, I am just late to the party!
Day by day things are getting better and easier in the world of me where my health is concerned and I blame myself for that, just like I blame myself for getting into a situation where saying "I weigh a quarter of a ton" held truth. I am a changed person just 16 months later and that to me is what is amazing, I like to think of it as I am just becoming part of the normal crowd.
Last week I was inputting my weight for the past 2 months into my "weight graph" which is an excel sheet that we made and I have been keeping track of my weight on it so that I may have a visual depiction of what I have done, yea I know that a mirror serves the same purpose in my case but the graph really is eye opening to see trends. I thought I would pop a screen capture up here showing my progress from January 2008 until last Fridays weigh in just for kicks so that anyone interested could see it in graph form, the image is clickable so that a full sized view can be had.
Click the image for a full sized viewOver the weekend I got more than a few comments pointed in the direction of "you really look good" or "it's amazing how you have been able to maintain this for so long" and I have to admit that I enjoy hearing things like that, but then who wouldn't? I started thinking about it though and "being able to maintain it for so long" is something that I have even heard in comments on this blog and is kind of the point of this whole thing, I mean thin people maintain it all of the time don't they? fit people maintain this lifestyle on a daily basis without flinching right? how come no one says to a very fit person "Hey that's amazing that you are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle like that" I love getting complimented, C'mon we all do but isn't that one kind of a back handed compliment? Like the fat guy should be praised for being able to not eat cake, I guess the way that I look at is like this. I don't think it is amazing that I have maintained this eating right moving more program for the last almost 17 months, I see it more as I have re-learned how to not eat wrong, I am not really maintaining a "diet" so to speak, I am now maintaining what every other person on the planet that does not have a weight issue does daily, the only difference is that I was once 534 pounds.
I think that is the mindset that we as over weight people need to get over, we are no different than any other person in this world, besides the fact that we weigh twice as much as most of them! but hey we're working on that part right? right?? yes I am talking to you! I am no different than the very nice woman that I walked about 1/4 mile with yesterday while out on my walk, I am no different than the very fit very intense looking woman that made me think twice about my discipline a couple weeks ago, That older fella that runs around the lake that I live on like he is Forest Gump? no different, not one bit. If we walk through a crowded store or park and randomly choose 6 people based on nothing other than they happened to be the next random person, each and every one of them would be capable of choosing to eat properly and exercising enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle but no one would ever call it amazing.
Myself, the woman from last night, very fit very intense woman and Forest are all completely different people on completely different levels of fitness/health and at the same time we are all very much the same. I have no clue whether any of those other people have ever been over weight or not, for all I know Forest may have started running because he too was once a quarter ton man, but I have learned that I don't find that the fact he runs around this lake seemingly for hours some times amazing, He is just a man doing something that he is capable of for unknown reasons to me. At 534 pounds that feat would have been amazing to me, at my quarter ton weight I had honestly loathed people for walking! seriously! I can remember thinking to myself as I sat on the couch "why would anyone want to walk around with no where specific to go?" I honestly had that thought at one point in my life and shortly thereafter I decided to lose weight and get healthy again, I at some point realized that the statement above was the statement of someone that was giving up, and I was not going to give up, that was a state of mind that is not a good place to be.
I believe that anyone can do whats right for themselves, Losing 200 pounds is a feat for sure, I am just unsure that it is amazing because once we are in the right mind set it becomes second nature to eat correctly and exercise more. I do not smoke and never have but is it amazing that I am more than 30 years smoke free? no because smoking is not something that we need to do to survive and neither is over eating. I often hear people say that eating is something that we need to do to survive so it is somehow different than other addictions and though I can agree with that concept and I know first hand how hard getting over that hump is I cannot agree with that philosophy for more than one reason that I may get into in a later post. Its almost like those dead beat dads out there that expect people to give them praise for paying their tiny little child support payments, saying things like "I pay my child support I am doing my part man" There is nothing special about paying child support, it is expected and it is our duty as fathers to support any children that we bring into this world and I look at it that way. its just eating right and exercising and is what should have been done from the beginning, I am just late to the party!
Day by day things are getting better and easier in the world of me where my health is concerned and I blame myself for that, just like I blame myself for getting into a situation where saying "I weigh a quarter of a ton" held truth. I am a changed person just 16 months later and that to me is what is amazing, I like to think of it as I am just becoming part of the normal crowd.
As Ever
Me
Good way to look at it. I often find myself saying things that refer to me as "a fat woman", and not just "a woman". Difficult mindset to change, and hadn't thought much about it. Will now. Vee at www.veegettinghealthy.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete*applause*
ReplyDelete*****STANDING OVATION*****
Great post Tony!!! Problem for me is I seem to still have that 1/5 ton woman in my head far to often. I wish I could send her packing for good, maybe some day.
ReplyDeleteyou make a point Id never really considered ---that it's not purely a compliment but a backhanded one.
ReplyDeletemay I play devils advocate and say that people DO sometimes say to me: youve been fit for so long (usually with the caveat of AND YOU HAVE A CHILD/ARE A SAHM) how do you do it?
Those comments get to me as well. I was so surprised how I took them when I actually thought about them. My biggest pet peeve is someone asking me whether a certain food is "on my Diet". I'm not on a Diet, I'm just eating better!!
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
well hallelujah about the child support comment...UGH...don't even get me started ;) does anyone ever thank us "everyday" parents for consistently choosing to care for our kids or is it just expected?
ReplyDeleteSorta like eating right and being fit... it really is just expected, unless your super fat or super super thin then you can have a compliment because we know you would normally be on one side of the spectrum or the other. Either not eating or gorging. what gives, there is no middle ground worthy of complimenting...
ahhhhhhh common sense I need to get me some of that!!!!
you really do look great though Tony! I am LOVIN the nail polish (wink wink) and I will fall right into the trap and say it---I am glad you are still on the wagon!