Entering the holiday danger zone...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a great time with the girlfriend's family. I also had some great catch up phone calls with my family. That's what the season is about, right, remembering to take time to keep in touch and reconnect.

Oh yea, there's the other thing that it's all about -- nasty delicious food! I tried to be good on Thanksgiving, I did. I skipped breakfast in anticipation of a 2pm feast. I also skipped trying the pre-feast apple pie that some people dug into with the fervor of true carb-addicts. Yes, I was being good. Then 5:30 came: finally time to dig in.

I had a good mix of turkey, broccoli, asparagus, stuffing, and berries. I avoided the rolls (mostly :)) and then the pie came out. I had a reasonable slice of pumpkin, then a good slice of apple, then another good slice of apple, then some chocolate chip cookies. Let me tell you, after only a couple of weeks off of SAD, all those carbs and sugar really messed me up. I felt pretty terrible, and fell asleep really early.

Since then I've been doing the best I can to detox. Yesterday I had lots of leftover turkey with avocado and lettuce -- yum! I've been trying to avoid grains and dairy as best I can, but sometimes it's unavoidable, like in delicious nearly paleo gumbo. A little bit here and there doesn't seem to make me feel bad though.

I feel much better even just a few days after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre! I am learning how to deal with the social situations, and even more so, how to deal with myself and adjust my lifelong bad relationship with food.

Cheers!

Trucking along...

So, its been a month and a half since i last posted.  A lot has changed since then. I have taken up a new diet scheme. I continue to go to HIIT classes, and also mix in bike riding, surfing, kiteboarding, and walking. I feel great, much more even keel than i used to.

The biggest shift in diet is ive gone paleo. I am not strict about it, but i have not eaten grains or dairy or legumes in a week or two. I have to say the change is great. The first week was a transition, with headaches and other no-more-processed-carb issues, but ive come through that and feel good. its amazing how much that has changed my life in general.

Also, im now done almost 10 pounds in the past couple months! It feels great! I csnt wait to drop some more and get back to my more comfortable weight. Cheers!

Planning for me...

This weekend was all about wedding. That's tough to handle -- the random people you meet, the alcohol present, the treats treats and more treats!

I did pretty well, all things considered. I tracked all weekend and went over my goal but not by much. The key was to avoid snacking at all and only eat a little bit of everything available. I managed to enjoy myself without going overboard, and be present in my eating. Mostly ;)

Last night, there was a karaoke night with all of the girls who were in town. Of course I came along, and as usual wasn't too thrilled about the whole, bunch of drunk girls with nobody I could talk to. I need to be better about just saying no, I don't want to deal with that. I know I will not enjoy it and I just go along with it to make the girl happy. In the end I'm just miserable that I'm all alone in the middle of a girlfest.

Today, I took off and avoided all of the dress fittings and other nonsense going on. This has been a great afternoon, with a much-needed haircut, picking up some books from my ex-favorite bookstore, and hanging out at my ex-favorite coffee shop. It's a good chance to see where I used to live and have some time to myself to decompress and have some me time.

My old barber commented that I had put on a little weight. He doesn't speak much English so it's hard to communicate sometimes, but I know he was just looking out for me and worried that I was having issues. I am not upset about it, I know it's the truth and I have started going the other way so it's just a little more motivation and knowledge that people care and are paying attention to my issues.

Happy sunday!

Kickin' those bad habits

The last couple of weeks have been less than stellar. I can make excuses, but the bottom line is I have a lot of bad habits that I have to kick.

Coming home after work and snacking all night long -- apparently not good for weight loss!
Counting calories for breakfast and lunch but not after -- need to work on that
Being lazy and skipping workouts -- ahh yea, feels good :)

So yea, I'm working on it. Yesterday I was back on track, hopefully today goes good as well. It's a process, people, and I'm working on it.

Try, Try Again

Well, I’m back again! I have not been following through on my plans to stay accountable and make real changes in my life.

What are my overall goals? This is an important question that should drive how I approach things.

Physically – I want to gain energy, improve my ability to do things I enjoy (snowboarding, surfing, biking, screwing around), fit in my closet full of clothes, and improve my health and how I feel.

Mentally – I want to improve my willpower, be present and mindful in eating and drinking, stay active and out of funks.

Generally – I want to improve my health and happiness!

For now, I want to have some well-defined goals for the next 2 weeks, and then revisit them and see how I did both one week from now and 2 weeks from now.

Training goals:

Go to circuit training SpeedX workout 3x/week

At least 30 minutes activity every day

Nutrition goals:

                No booze

                One meal at night (no snacks/treats)

Mental goals:

                Weekly check in and reflection (1 hour)

                Blog reading every other day (30 minutes)

                Maximum 1 hour TV/video games per day

Having a plan

I think one of the key things to being successful at this is having a plan. This forces you to focus and keeps you accountable.

For me, this is something I have been lacking since I got off the wagon. I still work out occasionally, but I am just arbitrarily deciding what to do on a day-to-day basis. This has kept me from being outrageously unhealthy, but it hasn't allowed me to get where I need to be.

I have decided to make a few changes that will help me stay healthy, and have fun doing it! I am going to start doing active things with friends. Right now, most of my time spent with friends involves eating and/or drinking, the two things that are deadly to getting healthy. I have started to plan morning/weekend surfing outings, and other more active things to do with friends.

In terms of keeping myself accountable, I have started working towards completing another half marathon. The last one I did was about 6 years ago, and it did wonders for me. I am enjoying getting up a little early during the week to run or walk, and taking some time to stretch and actually have a good breakfast.

I also plan to continue weight lifting twice a week, though I'm not going to track myself too much or focus on it as much as the running.

Food-wise, the last few days I have really started to think every time I eat. I recently read that the main difference between skinny people and fat people is that before eating, skinny people picture how they will feel after eating (bloated and sluggish vs. energized) and fat people picture how eating the food will be (boring vs. delicious). That's a generalization, and obviously healthy food can be delicious too, but by picturing the enjoyment during eating, there's no reason to stop. By picturing the enjoyment afterwards, it's easy to avoid the bad foods. So, my plan going forward is to have a happy balance of enjoying the food, but staying in control. I will never fully have the mentality that food is just for sustenance. I enjoy eating, I enjoy cooking, and that's not going to change.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this!

Beginning again..

So, it's obviously been awhile since I posted here. I need to get back into it. I have a new job, new apartment, new city, living with my girlfriend, and things are just going great. Except for the weight.

Yup, you guessed it, with all the changes and the lack of time, I haven't gotten into a good healthy routine. I've gained about 25 pounds from my lowest point, and about 20 from where I was feeling good about myself and comfortable. I've begun feeling just gross and unhealthy.

It didn't all come on at once, though the last 5 months saw the bulk of it. It started slow, with less working out, less paying attention.

Recently I've been noticing I am out of shape, and doing less about it. I am eating some healthy food and some unhealthy food. I'm going to the gym a few days a week. Overall, it seems like a decent compromise. But, I've just been cramming food in my face a few nights a week. That is my biggest problem.

I eat fine during the day, big healthy breakfast and reasonable lunch. Then I get home, I'm not really that hungry, but I stuff my face. And then I finish, and I realize there are more snacks in the kitchen, and I stuff my face some more.

It's a lot more difficult because I'm living with my girlfriend so all of our food is communal. I can't just ignore all of the candy in the pantry and all of the chips. I end up gorging on it, like, every night.

So anyway, I think the first step is accepting what I've done to myself. Like it or not, I weigh 205 lbs now, not 195 like I key in to the cardio machines. And I'm feeling more and more gross and unable to move the same way I used to.

I want to start tracking again, start being present in my eating, and get back to enjoying eating healthy and not stuffing my face for no reason.