Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Your brains, Zeusmeatball's strength, my steel cut oats!

What we've got here is failure to communicate, some men ya just can't reach so ya get what we had here last week. Now that's a line from the best movie of all time if its my opinion being asked and I at times hear that in my head when I slip off of the wagon or make a bad food choice and I feel that is the way it is for many people that struggle with weight loss. We try to make the best choices that we can for any given situation but there are times when it just doesn't play out the way that it should have and that is the point where people start beating themselves up and figure "welp I fugged that all up, time to eat a pie" why? because a slip happened its time to give up? nah we all know that its just the next excuse in the line of excuses that justify the bad choices that are all to easy at times to make.


I don't believe that there is a magic formula for losing weight, I do believe that the only thing that's needed is to make the choice to change the way we eat and move and the rest sort of just falls into place. Just falls into place? what are you nuts? get up and eat a healthy breakfast followed by some healthy snacks, make sure to drink enough fluids then I am expected to eat a good lunch and dinner? squeeze in some exercise, THEN get to bed at a reasonable time just to start over the next morning? but what about watching Conan O'brien?? oh wait...even still that's a lot of work! AND I am suppose to do all of the other things in my day like work and taking care of a house and kids? You kind sir are out of your gourd! I am now in the opinion that eating is NOT a sport, it is NOT anything other than a way to get fuel into our bodies so that we may do all of those things listed above, wow what a concept eh? eating to live rather than living to eat.


Once upon a long time ago in a galaxy not so far away I was a naysayer and a non believer in this philosophy as well but I promise that once that mental hurdle gets stepped over that it gets easier to eat like a human being rather than a billy goat. Exercise I am finding to be down right therapeutic and that right there is as good a reason to take it up as a hobby as any if you ask me, I mean think about it, taking eating food as a hobby got us here why not take up exercise as a hobby to get us out of this mess? When we look at it from a different angle where the view is not hindered by the roadblock called self pity things start falling into place where health and good eating habits are the subject, no really they do! I only know this because I have experienced both sides of that coin unfortunately but if someone would have tried to tell me -and they did- what I needed to do back when I was 534 pounds I would have given them a snarky response and finished my food.

Cheesy crumbs on my tee shirt and orange finger tips laying defeated on the sofa sipping root beer from a 2 liter bottle was just a warm up for the ensuing barrage of greasy goodness that was quickly super heating in the microwave is how many a night played out, hell that's how some mornings went! Getting up to walk into the kitchen and get a second helping of whatever was as much exercise as I was going to get or perhaps a walk upstairs to go to the bathroom but either way it wasn't much. I am too hard on myself sometimes with that whole thing because I did after all have a bonifide "excuse" as to why I couldn't exercise what with my back injury but then again did I really have to eat the way that I did? probably not. The stark difference from then to now if compared side by side is absolutely amazing to me, green tea on my breath and more fresh fruit in my house than ever there has been, counting every calorie that goes into my body and eating as many whole foods as I can my eating habits are completely different from then to now. Currently I go to the gym 4 to 6 times per week and leave only because I run out of time, I love being there and working out I look forward to that up feeling that comes after a good solid workout. The warmer months for exercise I ride my bike around the lake that I live on and walk the hilly streets in my area and have been know to run a bit, hiking and running around the yard with the kids is on that list as well and when I think back to how it use to be I cannot believe that it was me.


I always hear that "bad habits are hard to break" but I like to look at the other side of that and apply the same concept, if bad habits are hard to break then wouldn't Good habits be hard to break as well? Yes they are and let me splain, no there is too much, let me sum up because this happened to me just last week. I had a doctors appointment so I missed the gym that afternoon and as it turned out I wasn't feeling that great anyways so I decided to just not go that day at all and the following day I was still not feeling so hot and in the morning I decided that I would not go to the gym that afternoon. That time rolled around and as I was walking out the door it dawned on me that I had earlier decided not to go to the gym yet here I was in my gym clothes, water bottle in hand, head phones in my pocket and walking out the door with everything needed to go to the gym and until that very second had not even thought about it because I was not going, remember? it is a habit for me to get ready to go work out every afternoon now and I honestly feel guilty when I don't make it out for my cardio so I have to insist that if bad habits are hard to break then the good ones are as hard to break because a habit is a habit is a habit I say.

Once more than 500 pounds now more than 200 pounds lighter I have changed my habits and I'm tellin ya as hard as it was to drop those bad habits that were built up over years it will be as tough to lose these good habits that I have created in the past two years. Like a puppet my good habit walked me to the bedroom to get my gym clothes on, fill up my water bottle, grab my head phones and off to the gym instead of a short walk to a cold refrigerator to grab a large meal and return defeated once again to that couch like so many other times in the past.

That's all I got for today, As the fat guy turns will return at its regularly scheduled time and channel tomorrow, but that 6xl cheesy tee shirt will never return if I have anything to say about it.

As Ever
Me

7 comments:

  1. Excellent post! I like your thinking on food as fuel... As I read that, it dawned on me that's one of the reasons why I'm starting to see a little headway in my fight on fat. I'm starting to eat food as fuel, as well. Cheers!

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  2. "I don't believe that there is a magic formula for losing weight, I do believe that the only thing that's needed is to make the choice to change the way we eat and move and the rest sort of just falls into place."

    Amen to that!

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  3. Why do you drink a gallon of green tea a day? Is it for hydration or is there something in it,that aids in your weight loss success?

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  4. I loved this post! It definitely made me stop and think about how i look at food and exercise. Thanks

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  5. Tony you should really write a book about this experience when you are at goal. You're a terrific writer, very engaging.

    I'm back on the blog wagon...made my first new post last night. Thanks for being a great role model and hanging in there.

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  6. Thanks for the comments guys ;) they are ALWAYS READ and APPRECIATED by me ;) its always good to know that people are reading!

    Andrew, just gotta say that you have me thinking about running again and i do intervals at the gym on the treadmill quite often now and thinking about doing C25K on the treadmill too.

    Anonymous, there are a ton of benefits to drinking green tea, search the tag "green tea" on this blog and I wrote an article on it as well as posted an article with a study in it ;) it is for hydration as well and I love the way it tastes (I make an orange green tea lately that's good)

    Andee!!! glad to see you are back on the wagon ;) its been a while I hope everything is good on your end, I will check out your "first new post"

    As Ever
    Me

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  7. Just wanted to say that I love your blog and way of thinking. I will be so glad when I reach that point to where I feel exercise and blogging are habits I can't break!!

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