As I write this blog, I have to say that I'm pretty amazed by television writers that, on a daily or weekly basis, write television shows, come up with new stories and captivate audiences week after week. I'm sitting here now, trying to think about what to say and realizing that I don't have a lot to say about this week. Maybe once my fingers begin pressing keys, they'll take over and my brain won't have to think about what should be typed. At the least I hope that I can keep your attention until the end of the blog.
In my life, I've lost a significant amount of weight two different times. The first time was when I was 19. I weighed 210 pounds and went on a church mission to Venezuela. Venezuela is the northern most country of South America. When I arrived I had a rude awakening about life outside of the United States. In South America wealthy people have cars. Everyone else rides public transportation, unless you can't afford that, and in that case you walk. Well, even though we were missionaries and, most of us, from the United States, we didn't have the luxuries that most Americans have when they travel. We used public transportation. When we ran out of money, which was not uncommon, or when the public transportation was offline for whatever reason, we walked. As missionaries, we had areas that we were assigned to work in from one to six months. I remember one week when the bus drivers were on strike in a place called Barquisimeto. We lived 3 miles outside of our work areas. We had to walk to our area to work and then walk from one side of the city to the next. We walked an average of 12 to 14 miles in a day during that week, whereas a typical area would only require 6 to 8 miles a day. As you can imagine, going from no exercise to 14 miles a day is going to do wonders for your body. When I returned from the mission, two years later, I weighed 152 pounds. Contrast the walking that we did as missionaries in South America, or the amount of bike riding that people did in the last place that we lived in Germany with the our lackadaisical attitudes here.
I tell this story to be comical, but this proves my point as to how comfortable we are with our lifestyle in America. I won't mention anyone by name, but I was talking to someone that I care about deeply from Bakersfield, California. She was returning home from somewhere and pulled into her driveway with her car. When she parked, she realized that she forgot to check the mail. Instead of getting out of the car and walking to the end of the driveway and getting the mail, she put the car in reverse and pulled in front of the mailbox, got the mail and then pulled back into the driveway. An just to clear things up, her driveway was the length of three cars. Sorry, I had to tell the story, thinking about how comical that is and it plays into the theme of this week of exercise.
After being back from my mission for a couple of years, I started gaining weight again. I got back up to the 200 pound mark and shortly after I joined the Army. It was in basic training and advanced training that I lost a significant amount of weight for the second time, losing 40 pounds.
Well, needless to say, I have gained all of that weight back, and more. During this week and thinking about those times that I've lost weight, I've had an epiphany, one of my few "ah hah" moments. I've realized that I can eat what I want, if I'm willing to do the exercise necessary to burn off those extra calories consumed. With both of my weight loss experiences, the only thing that has changed was the amount of daily physical exertion that I engaged in. When I finished my mission, I stopped walking and hiking and moving around so much. When I finished with the Army, I stopped exercising daily and worrying about my weight. Now, I don't use this as justification to eat what I want, but as a realization that I can lose weight, without starving myself, if just make exercise a part of my daily routine.
I mentioned in other posts that I love food, and I do. I hate starving myself, too. To lose weight, without exercising, I'm going to have to starve myself, and I think I will eventually give up if I do that. If I am going to lose weight and ... here's the important part... keep it off, I MUST exercise regularly. Now, this may be different with different people, but with me, I will need to exercise in order to lose the weight that I want, and I will have to exercise in order to maintain the weight that I want once I get there. As I go along this journey, I am going to continue to make changes to my diet, which will help me to continue to lose weight.
I think that I mentioned last week that I felt that this week, of all weeks, would be the most difficult. I said that because I have tried several fad diets and with all of them I have crashed and burned on week 2. I have done Atkins diet for 2 weeks, South Beach diet for two weeks, weight watchers for two weeks, fit for life for two weeks, and several others that I don't recall. I've changed my outlook now, I think every week is going to present its challenges and difficulties. I fully expect to go through the weeks over the next year and have failures, but I must convince myself to keep going every week, or else I will be right back up there at 260 pounds and living a less fulfilling life.
Well, I think I'm done philosophizing for this post. Here is how my week went.
I started exercising, as I mentioned in one of my comments this week. Teresa is a great motivator. She goes walking everyday, whether or not I'm there, and is always setting the example for me with exercise. So, this week I exercised 5 days out of the week. We walk for about 30 to 45 minutes around the block (Hey, that block is pretty big). It's probably a little more than a mile. I try to change it up a little bit and have started sprinting between light poles with my oldest son, Steven. Thank heavens I'm still able to beat him. He's a little slower than me and it's nice to rub his nose in his failure. He's gotten to be a little cocky and it's nice to humble him every now and then. All of his brothers ride their bikes and so I've not been able to beat them. Steven's bike just got fixed on Saturday, and now I'm not able to beat him anymore, but it was good while it lasted. I take solace in knowing that, since I'm bigger than him, if he annoys me too much I can just tell him to get off of his bike and sprint with me. It's nice being the boss and being able to affect so much control over him. I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets older and starts showing more defiance. Well, back to exercising. I said that I like to change it up a bit. This week I also tried putting on roller blades that I hadn't worn in years. Holy cow, if your as out of shape as I am and would like to roller blade, get ready for some sore shins, calves, back, stomach, neck, arms (from holding on to things) and lungs. That was a beat down like no other beat down on me in five years. Here is me getting ready to give myself a near heart attack.
As far as food goes this week, I've done better, I've done worse. I need to improve my eating habits still. I got up for work a little late every day this week and didn't have a salad ready for me to go to work. Three times I went out to a restaurant for lunch. Twice I went to Subway and had their Chicken Breast Sub. I would have been fine, had I only had the 6" sub, but I got the foot long both times. The other restaurant that I went to was Shoney's buffet. Buffets, while on a diet, are bad, ok? They're just bad. I had two plates of salad and then, to top it off, had some green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes with gravy. I ate reasonably because my plates were small, but the mashed potatoes and gravy are diet killers.
So here I am on Sunday, a week where I should have eaten better, but I started exercising more, and here are the results of my journey for week 2.
Starting weight: 253 Pounds
Current weight: 251 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pounds
Total weight loss: 9 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.46%
It's not great, but a weight loss beats a weight gain every time. And I did mention that I planned to take a year to accomplish my goal.
Thanks for following. Look for more again next Sunday!
~S
18 comments:
Wow honey! That was quite a read. lol But, I know this is your diet journal, so thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really did enjoy reading them. I am also grateful for the daily walks that we are doing. It is a fantastic way to keep us healthy and get the boys in a good habit.
Way to go on the two pounds, I think you are doing AWESOME on your diet. Keep it up.
Good job Steve!
I am finally getting up early tomorrow to run for only about the fifth time since the Marathon. I've already put on about 8 pounds since the Marathon so I hear ya. Gotta exercise or it just come back on.
Keep it up!
Excellent ah ha epiphany! This blog really is more realistic. Great job! I am proud of you. Also, your fingers did a great job of keeping me interested. Good stories.
YAHOO!! GO Steve!
Health advisers will tell you 2-3 pounds per week is ideal. There is a better chance of keeping it off if it is slow and steady rather than quick and too rapid.
Remember weightloss is about making life changes to keep it off and keeping you healthy-not just losing the weight!
I enjoyed reading your update. Keep up the good work!
I loved reading this. Well done! You should propably look for some exercise that you really like and try out some new things. I know that you like horses, why don´t you try riding? ( A heavy horse should be able to carry you ;o) ) Or windsurfing? Or you join a football club? Or, or, or, as I don´t know what is on in your area. Check it out! That would be fun for you, give you some time for yourselfe and help keeping up the exercise.
Good job Steven! Two pounds lost is definately better then gained. Speaking of little Steven, count your blessings that he is still too young to challenge you on many things -- just wait!! Then you'll realize what dad & I went through!! Love ya Mom
Wow! Another 2 pounds. That's fantastic! I started Weight Watchers last Friday and so far so good. What I'm realizing with food is it's all choices. And definitely portion sizes. (Just like you said in your last posting) And I've completely cut out sodas. But I've never really had a problem with soda, so that was easy for me. Anyway, I'm learning to listen to my stomach while I eat, and when I feel satisfied, I stop eating. I don't gorge myself into feeling like that beached whale you were mentioning earlier. And the #1 way to NOT over eat, is to make sure you don't allow yourself to get to the point of starving! If you feel yourself getting a little hungry and it's still an hour or two before dinner, grab a handful of grapes, or a banana, or something healthy that won't fill you up too much. Just something to take away the oncoming hunger.
Anyway, I'll have my second weigh in on Friday, so I'll let you know how much I lost (if any). Keep up the great work, Bose!
I am going to try giving stickers or dollar bills for small goals achieved daily - no ( or only 1) sweets, exercise, eat until satisfied only 4 times per day. I can earn 3 a day. I think the stickers would work on a big calendar, but the dollars might be more fun. School started!!! time to get on a schedule.
Steve! I really am a follower. I just haven't had time to comment (or do my own blog) lately. I've been reading yours though (and then discussing with Scott, Laura and Brian) and it's been very interesting. We've all been there (maybe not Brian) and we are all cheering for you. I lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers after Ava and FELT SO GOOD!!! It stayed off (hardest part) until I had to go get pregnant again and now I'll have to do it all over again! I'll be joining your weight loss club soon. Have you thought of doing Weight Watchers online? That is what we did and I'll do again. It was GREAT. We learned so much and to Scott it was like a game he was playing on the computer.
I have so many thoughts and ideas of what helped me. The one that came to mind as I read your last post was what my dad said before: weight loss is 80% what you eat and 20% how much you exercise. It is so true. So true. I didn't exercise at all while losing the 30 pounds, but started to so that I could keep it off. So, to manage the 80% (what you eat) correctly, you HAVE TO look at calories, fat and fiber in everything you eat. The reason I say that is because I was so surprised at what was good for me to eat and what wasn't. For example: I laid off of cereal completely and would have an english muffin with an egg and a piece of canadian bacon on it for breakfast. It was actually less points. Surprise, surprise. You can also be so surprised by salads. First, you can't keep up on eating salads for very long. And often times salads are not a good idea at all once you add all of the extras. You just have to pay attention to what is in them. Scott was able to take the Cafe Rio salad (a shocking 2000 calories) and change the tortilla to a wheat one and instead of dressing get more pico de gallo. Those types of changes help a lot. We loved Subway, as you have mentioned. Just get the whole wheat bread and light mayo. One more thing that saved me: I had to have some sort of snack/treat, my favorites were Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, Smart Pop kettle corn and Healthy Choice fudge bars. Enjoy! They are good!
O.k. That is all for now. Good luck to you and congratulations on the weight you have lost so far. You're a brave soul for letting us all follow you along your journey. Just know you have a lot of support and understanding along the way.
Steve - great job for sticking with it day after day for another week. That can be one of the toughest things. You are SO right about eating and exercise. I had a friend in Germany who was slender and very fit (she ran 10 mi on the average day) and she said she exercised so much because she liked to eat a lot.
It's good that you know you're going to have times where it doesn't go so well and it's especially good to not beat yourself up over it.
Walking alone is a fantastic exercise. Just remember, more muscle = more caloric burn at rest!!
Keep it up!
Andrea
Great job on the 2 lbs. That is a perfect weekly goal.
I hate to share a nasty secret with you, but you must know.
What you did at 19 will not work at 30+. Your metabolism slows down as you age. That is why there a more slender teenagers than there are older people. Texting and gaming don't burn that many calories.
And remember - Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% excercise. Excercise is VERY important, diet is critical.
i am so inspired by your journal. in the last year i have learned that i am obese by 50 lbs and that has bugged me. so thank you for sharing your journey, you are doing great and setting such an example for your boys so that they can learn and not have the same battles. so far on my weight loss i have just stayed steady but have taught cori how to use the bow flex and that is pretty cool to see an almost 2 year old have fun with that...keep it up steve. :-)
Hey, Roger, I love your thoughts on the subject, can you tell me how you came to your conclusions on the 80 / 20 ratio? I'm hearing conflicting ideas about the prominence that exercise plays in weight loss.
Steve,
This is becoming a weekly ritual for me! It's really cool to watch your progress. You're doing great, so keep it up. Two things:
1) If you haven't been running for a while, be careful with sprinting. Your joints (especially knees) aren't used to the high impact anymore, but they will be.
2) You've managed to lose weight while eating in restaurants three times in one week! I'm just impressed.
-Ski
Regarding the relative benefits of exercise and diet -
1. Both are essential.
2. After jogging/walking regularly for over 25 years, my weight loss only came when I changed my eating habits.
3. It takes so much exercise to burn off the extra calories consumed, people rarely do it.
4. People often use exercise alone as the excuse to eat what they shouldn't.
My understanding with exercise is that you burn calories while moving, but your metabolism stays higher for about 24 hours, thus burning more calories for the whole next day. It also lessens my snacking for 2 days, if I go to the 3rd day, I will eat more that day. That is probably psychological. I wonder if that theory is on snopes?
Sue, as far as exercise is concerned, I've found that I am generally not hungry for several hours after a strenuous workout. My problem currently is that we walk as a family after dinner, so the hunger when I should be controlling my eating habits during the day is not lessened by it. I am happy to say, though, that this week is going great for eating and exercise, so I'm optomistic for Sunday's weigh-in!
Post a Comment