The latest Roadblock

Well, it looks like over time, I've developed a case of plantar Fasciitis in my right foot. Here's a little explanation of Plantar Fasciitis:

The classic symptom of plantar fasciitis is heel pain when you take your first steps after getting out of bed or after sitting for a long period of time. You may also have:

• Stiffness and pain in the morning or after resting that gets better after a few steps but gets worse as the day progresses.
• Pain that gets worse when you climb stairs or stand on your toes.
• Pain after you stand for long periods.
• Pain at the beginning of exercise that gets better or goes away as exercise continues but returns when exercise is completed.

It's a condition that I've been aware of for a while, but has not been severe enough to impede my daily life. . . until recently that is. It may have been the backpacking trip in September that pushed things over the edge. It has gotten to the point where the pain doesn't fade away after a few steps in the morning, but stays with me every single step throughout the day.

This condition has really put a damper on my cardio workouts since I really like to run on the treadmill almost every day. Now, I've come to the conclusion that I really need to address this situation and can no longer just grit my teeth and run through the pain. The only thing to do is to let it rest and heal as much as possible. I've gained five pounds now due to this whole thing, and I take full responsibility for that. I'm the one who came to the conclusion that if I can't run, then there's no point in working out. . .and if I can't workout, then why bother eating right either? a dangerous dangerous thought process right?

Well, I've snapped out of that and am drawing a line here and now. I am not going to let Plantar Fasciitis cause me to gain back all the weight I have worked so hard on getting off. It's been two weeks since I've jogged now, and there is a HUGE difference in the pain now. It's still there, but it seems that I'm on the mend. I have to substitute other cardio in the place of running, and this has been a psychological challenge for me. I've just had it so ingrained in my head that running is such an optimum form of cardio, that anything else just isn't worth doing.

This week however I forced myself to stay off the treadmill after my lifting and did all my cardio on the elliptical and spinner bike. I even had a couple of cheat meals, and voila! I lost two pounds! So, I'm pleased. This was a big milestone for me mentally, because I was able to demonstrate to my subconscious that weight loss is indeed just as achievable with other cardio besides running. Now to just keep it up until the heel pain is gone.

The only obstacle now is, the only piece of cardio equipment I have at home is a treadmill. My workouts at work are the good ones where I have the other equipment available to me, including a stairmaster. I have to wrestle with a decision now. I want to get something for home, but can't afford an elliptical and a bike. So, which one for now? Eventually I'd like to have both. Especially because I think it'd be great if the wife and I could workout side by side at nights after the kids were in bed while we watch our TV shows on the DVR. We could go twenty minutes on either machine, and then switch and do twenty more. I see myself getting an elliptical first at this point. Seems like you get just that much more out of an elliptical than a bike, what with the arm movements and all.

Well, until any further developments. . . over and out.

Sometimes Life Just Happens

Well, thanks to that pretty little thing on the right, I haven't been able to do much, and that includes working out. Let me introduce the world to Macy, my fourth child and second daughter. She was born on August 9th, and life has been a whirl wind ever since. Between family and friends helping out by bringing over meals and snacks for our family, and just having little to no sleep at night, the whole work out / eat right routine has been majorly interrupted. I am happy to say that I have only suffered the gain of a few pounds, which isn't bad considering the glutton I've made out myself sometimes. I don't just fall off the wagon, I jump off, doing flips in the air and laughing insanely all the way to the ground.

This is exactly what happened the last time I was on a successful path to fitness, and we had a baby. The difference this time, is I have been monitoring what's happening to me, and basically, I'm just not letting myself off the hook this time! Today was my first real day of working out and eating right, and it feels good. It feels good to know that I'm back on track. Maybe I'm not at the same cruising speed I was at before, but I AM back and slowly increasing the accelerator. It should take a couple weeks to get back to where I left off.

One thing motivating me is my backpacking trip coming up in a few weeks. My buddies and I, are doing a 20 mile four day hike in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. It's high altitude and rugged terrain. I don't want to be the guy at the end of the line that everyone else has to stop and wait for. So, there's some motivation for me to lose as much weight and get in the best shape I can by mid September.

Well, more to come eventually.

Over and Out.

So Close No Matter How Far

Well, I haven't written much lately, because not much lately has happened. Since the 4th of July I have been plagued by the inability to really get back into my program with full force. I've been eating correctly for the most part, and I have been exercising here and there, but I've been indulging too much in bad food over the last couple of weeks. The good news, is that I've been maintaining my weight loss. I haven't gained any weight back and so I'm happy with that.

I've been thinking that maybe I have been hitting it really hard non-stop for a while now and that a little break is called for. Just some time to step back, look at my goals, guage my progress, and recharge the batteries. If I can do this without gaining weight or getting seriously out of shape than I don't see the problem with it. Like I said, I'm probably still doing my program at 90% and I'm pretty much maintaining.

The key is to get back into full swing shortly. I can't allow myself to become complacent now. And that would be easy to do. I'm so close now to achieving my goals. I can't suddenly lose focus and drive on accomplishing the end result that I want and desire. NO! Good enough, will not be good enough this time!

Also my Accumeasure body fat calipers arrived the other day, and I measured my body fat percentage. It was around 24% which falls in the "average" category for a male my age. So, I have a new short term goal, and that is to get that percentage into the teens ( falls into the ideal category ) within the next five weeks, and about ten pounds to go along with it. That is going to be difficult since baby number four is coming to the family in about four weeks. I'm going to have to really focus to not let all that interfere with my program. Sure I probably won't get to workout and eat exactly right for a few days whent the baby comes, but I will do what I can.

Its kind of funny how I'm almost in exactly the same situation as I was the last time we had a baby, three years ago. I was five weeks into Body For Life and had lost about ten pounds and was crusiing along great in the program. Then my son Bridger was born. It threw me off my program. People were bringing by meals for our family and treats, etc. I never got back on program and three years later I woke up and had gained all my weight back and more. So, here I am facing the same scenario again, except this time I'm actually five pounds lighter...And this time I WILL NOT GET THROWN OFF TRACK!

The Real Power of The Mind

Well, today was the big weigh in. According to the scale I lost one pound this last week, bringing me down to 219 lbs on the dot. That brings me to a total of about 13 lbs since I started this seriously. One pound doesn't seem like much, but it's still a loss, and I will take what I can.

On the bright side, I think I had one of those weeks where maybe I traded a little fat off for muscle. I'm really feeling it this week in the fit of my uniform and gun belt this week. I think I lost inches this time around as opposed to just weight. I really need to invest in a body fat calipers, or at least just start taking measurements to guage my progress as well. In a way I guess I do take measurements. I always am aware of what hole on my belt I'm using, and how close I am to graduating down to the next hole. Or how much looser other clothes are beginning to fit. But, that is going just by feel more than actual numbers. I will have to make an effort on my next days off to get the measuring tape out of my wife's sewing kit and at least take some measurements.

I wanted to take some time to write more about the mental side of things. Just that, this morning I was listening to a radio talk show, and there was a phsychologist on as a guest. He was talking about the power of the mind, and here's a couple very interesting points he brought up: Apparently they've done some tests on people with multiple personality disorder and discovered some extremely strange things. For example: Some schizophrenics actually have thier eye-glass prescriptions change from personality to personality. And, while one personality can be really allergic to cats, when they switch to another personality the allergy is gone!

Stuff like that! Sounds hard to believe, but what does that tell us about our minds? It kind of goes along with what I've read in Tom Venuto's writings about reprograming our brains, and convincing our subconscious minds of what we are supposed to look like. I wonder how many weight loss enthusiasts are out there, that are aware of just how much our mind power can come into play when trying to get into shape and lose fat. I am just beginning to chisel at the tip of the iceberg, I think, but it's a subject I intend to explore more deeply.

By the way, the picture above is of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie, Psycho. He knew the power of the mind. = )

We Are What We Think

It's still a few days away from my weigh in, but I'm feeling pretty good. I had to put on my Sunday go to meetn' clothes this morning, which I haven't worn in about a month and I was pleasantly surprised by the fit of my pants. They were nice and loose. I had to put my belt on the third to the last notch. I could have gone one more really. So that was cool.

I'm pretty proud of my compliance this week to my program. I've stuck to the meal plan pretty good, and have been getting my workouts in too. Good ones.

Which brings me to my other thought. The importance of visualization. It's important to continually visualize what you'd like to see yourself looking like. The other day, I was running on the treadmill while listening to the Beowulf movie score on my ipod. I know it sounds a bit silly, but for some reason I really was getting caught up in the music. As I ran scenes from the movie played in my head, and I just kind of got stoked, pumped, energized. . .whatever you want to call it.

In this newly motivated state, (maybe it stems from my viking heritage) I bumped up the treadmill to a faster speed. It wasn't long before the sweat started to flow. the muscles started to burn, and my lungs were heaving for air. With the thunderous strains of the music score roaring in my ears, I locked my own gaze in the mirror. For a moment in my mind I became Beowulf. I wasn't running on a treadmill anymore, I was locked in mortal combat with the monster Grendel.

It's funny now to think about it, but I can't deny the powerful effect it had on me at the moment. I was pushing myself harder and longer than I normally would have. Since then, I've been thinking about how much of a mental game this all is in the end. How much of our ability and potential are hidden and locked away behind doors of self doubt, fear, laziness, or complacency. It's all a mind game. Our bodies are merely robots that only react to the input we give them. Calories in vs calories out. Over eating is a mental problem. An inactive, sedentary life all stems from our minds.

Just some things to think about I guess.

Over and out.

Damage Report!

Well, I weighed in last night, even though I was thinking about avoiding the scale after this week's debauchery with food and travel. My thinking was that I had probably gained weight, and I didn't want to depress myself by seeing the damage on the scale. Then, I realized that what I was actually doing was avoiding accountability. In Tom Venuto's book he talks about being accountable. And that lack of accountability is one of the biggest reasons people fail on diets.

I mulled it over in my head, as I stared at the scale in the corner of the training room at work. I was already dressed down for my nightly PT session. Then, I just decided, that I was avoiding accountability and responsibility for my actions if I did not weigh in. So, I stepped over to the digital scale, turned it on, and stepped on. To my surprise and relief I can say the damage isn't too bad. Looks like three days of complete abandonment of my eating principles cost me a gain of about 1.6 lbs.

Of course I'd rather have seen no gain at all, but I'm not going to complain. That's not a bad price to pay. And I can see how my new lifestyle is starting to embed itself in my brain and becoming habit. I know in times past a three day departure from my routine would have usually ended as a complete abandonment down the road of everything. This time, it wasn't even a struggle to get back in step with my new way of living. In fact, this time it was a relief to get back in the swing of things. I couldn't wait to get home, back to my healthy food. I couldn't wait to feel the pump of swollen muscles in the gym, and a sweat soaked t-shirt clinging to my skin as I pushed for one more minute on the treadmill, bike, or elliptical.

Am I obsessing about my health, nutrition, and weight loss? I hope so! That's what needs to happen to fully reach my goals. . . an obsession! Priority number ONE!

Goal for this week: I am going for two more pounds on the scale. By the time I workout on Tuesday morning at work, I am 218.2 lbs or under. I am two pounds lighter of fat because, I have eaten correctly and stayed with my program of working out. I have pushed myself this week to make sure I get those workouts in and that I am giving it 110% in the gym. I have also dutifully kept track of my calorie intake in my food journal. This has given me the baseline I need to keep track of my progress and to know where I stand at the end of each day.

Over and Out.

Another Week Down. . .In weight that is.

Alright! Today was weigh in day, and it turns out I was pleasantly surprised with a weight loss of 3.2 lbs! I'm pretty stoked about that, but to be honest that's losing more in one week than I really should. Anything more than two pounds a week, and you're running the risk that some of that loss is lean muscle, and I DON'T want to sacrifice lean muscle just to feel better on the scale.

I was surprised because I was not adhering as strictly to my program as I have before. At least in terms of working out I wasn't. Unless you count playing paintball for a day, and working hard physically in my garden and yard as working out. I did get one official workout in out of four days. The one thing I did do right was stick to the correct eating plan pretty well. That reaffirms what I've been told before; that what you eat is 90% of how effective your weight loss plan is going to be.

Anyway, this next week will be tough to keep it up. I have to fly to Portland on Wednesday with my brother, and then we're driving back Thursday. Staying with any kind of program those two days is going to be pretty tough. I'm expecting we'll be hitting McDonald's restaurants on the road and crap like that. I'm trying to come up with a plan where this little trip will have the smallest impact possible on my current fitness gains. I hate to go backwards after the hard work I've put in over the last several weeks. We'll see how it goes.

For now I'm just reveling in my new level of leanness, and enjoying the success thus far. I can see into my future and I know I'm on the right path. I'm armed with the right knowledge and I have the will power to stay on this path until I have achieved my goals.

Over and out!

Staying Positive

Well, tonight when I get into work is when I have my weekly weigh in to see how I'm doing. Last week, I weighed in around 223.5 lbs and I set a goal to lose two more pounds by today. I'm a little bit nervous about it because I cheated yesterday a little bit an weighed myself on the bathroom scale at home and it didn't seem to show that I'd lost. If anything the bathroom scale shows I may have gained! I will just have to wait and see what the digital scale out at work says and go from there.

On top of all that though, I've been thinking about this past week. I set that goal and I have to admit that it did wonders for motivating and driving me to eat right and get my training in every day. Tonight, perhaps the scale will not reflect the past week's efforts as I fear, and that's the danger of using the scale only to measure my success. So, I'm going to do my best to not allow the scale to determine how I feel about this past week.

In Tom Venuto's, The Body Fat Solution, he talks about how from day to day our body weight can fluctuate as much as five pounds, factoring in just water retention and things like that. To feel successful, all I really need to do is look back on this past week. I feel really good about how I ate, and trained all week. I stayed motivated, and had a strong will power. The other thing going for me, is I can feel for a fact that I've lost some fat as my clothes are fitting looser than before. I got to work last night and strapped on my firearm and duty belt, and it all felt a little looser than a week ago. And that's the true measure of success In this whole get into shape business. It's quite possible that I've been adding muscle and losing fat simultaneously and they've been canceling each other out.

The scale is good tool for measuring some success, but it shouldn't be my primary motivation from week to week. Of course, it eventually has to reflect my efforts. If I can get down to less than 10% body fat, I sure as heck will weigh less. Man look at my rambling rant today! You'd think I'd already weighed and found that I'd gained ten pounds by the way I've gone off today.

Regardless of what the scale says tonight, I'm going to just continue to charge forward with the same plan. I'll have to reset my goal and try again for next week. It's probably time to take some measurements as well. I'll update when I get the scale results as soon as I can.

Over and out.

Guilt-Free Hamburger & Tator Tots

About an hour ago I got back from one of my favorite local burger joints, Leo's Place, in Idaho Falls. At Leo's I enjoyed a big ole' half pound burger and a plate of tots, plus a diet Coke. And the awesome thing is, I can honestly say that I didn't "cheat, fall of the wagon, depart from the program", etc. In times past I'd probably be sitting around feeling guilty for such a decadent pleasure as a burger and tots.

But since my recent enlightenment I know that little free meals like mine tonight can be enjoyed occasionally and I can still continue to lose weight. The danger in times before would have been a feeling of guilt, which would lead to a feeling of failure, which would in turn lead to a feeling of hopelessness, which would eventually lead to a binge. . . causing more feelings of guilt and hopelessness and probably abandonment of the program entirely.

Those days and those feelings are in the past now. Tom Venuto believes in living life. We aren't robots, we are human beings. We require variety in our lives and simple pleasures. This isn't an excuse to eat whatever I want all the time. But, as long as I don't over indulge by stuffing myself, and ninety percent of the time I eat only the good, healthy, nutritious foods, and stick to my training program, then I will be fine. The weight should still come off. Maybe slower than a lot of programs out there, but it will be for sure and life long.

Tomorrow will be like any other day for me ninety percent of the time. Get up, eat a good healthy breakfast, workout, etc. I weigh myself on Saturday. That gives me plenty of time to get the burger out of my system.

Just about through this day

So far today, I'm hanging in there. Today is a day off from work. I have to have extra will power on these days not to eat bad for me foods. The bad part is, I work rotating twelve hour shifts, so I get four days off in a row. That makes it harder to stay good all those days. My wife made some banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies the other day, that have been calling my name all day. So far I have been able to resist their call. I keep remembering the goals I wrote down in the last post and how by Saturday I want to be down two more pounds. I think it has really helped me through this difficult day. Tom Venuto may be on to something with this idea of putting your goals in writing and reviewing them often.

This morning was a day off from lifting, but I jogged on the treadmill this morning for about thirty minutes. twenty minutes of H.I.I.T (high intensity interval training) and then ten minutes of moderate jogging. I burned about 450 calories according to the treadmill. Not bad.

It is 8:15PM and I'm only up to 1400 calories eaten so far today. That's not enough. I need to eat something soon with about 300 calories in it and that should be good for me today.

Tomorrow I am planning on a leg workout. I'd like to actually get down to the gym and do some free-weight squats if I can since I don't have a squat rack in my basement gym. But, if I must, I can do dead lifts and dumbell squats in the basement. Either way I have to make it happen. Maybe tomorrow I'll allow myself a free meal. Nothing out of control, just something I'll enjoy, but a decent portion.

That's it for now. Over and Out.

Vision & Goals

First of all I have to congratulate myself on a loss of two more pounds this week. I weighed today and was stoked to see I am now at 223 lbs. I was at 230 lbs about three weeks ago. What I really need to do is get a pair of body fat calipers so I can start tracking my body fat % instead of just pounds lost. I lift a lot of weights and so actual loss measured in pounds might not be as signifigant.

But for now, here's a short term goal for me: Next Saturday I am down to 221 lbs. Two pounds a week is considered the maximum you want to lose every week Anything beyond that, you are in danger of losing lean muscle mass, and I don't want that!

Tom Venuto advises that we should put our goals in writing, and read through them often, as well as re-write them several times. It somehow solidifies our intent into the subconscious. So here's a little try for me.

VISION: My vision is that at forty years old (currently I'm thirty six) I am in the best shape of my adult life. I have been staying on the straight and narrow for years now and have figured out exactly how to maintain my optimum weight, health, and body fat. I am eating healthy, nutricious meals ninety percent of the time. My energy and activity levels are through the roof, and I am an example to my friends and family of what they can achieve and accomplish with the right amount of knowlege and motivation.

LONG TERM GOAL: For now my long term goal is: I need to come up with a date, but roughly in three to four months from now, I have lost thirty pounds of fat. I weigh somewhere in the area of two hundred to two hundred five pounds, the main thing being my body fat percentage is under fifteen percent. I am fitting into clothes I haven't been able to wear in years. I am still aggresively pursuing even a leaner fitter body, because I'd like to see my six pack at least once in this life. I feel great and look great too.


Ok, well there we go. I need to come up with some more specific stuff for that long term goal, like a date and body fat numbers and weight and stuff, but I think that's pretty good for now.

Today I worked chest and biceps. I really burned them up too! Good solid workout.

My theme for a while is: "If pain is weakness leaving the body, then hunger must be fatness leaving the body"

Over and out.

Back To The Drawing Board

Well, today is day four of my new Atkins diet. I have spent two years trying to do the Body For Life program and have not made much progress. Sure, I have had good weeks with BFL, I even lost 12 pounds in 5 weeks on BFL once. Unfortunately, I can't seem to stay with it consistently enough to keep the weight off, and have spent the last two years gaining back twenty five pounds. I can say that in my experience with BFL I only lost weight if I was working out every day as the diet prescribes. The plus was if I stuck to the diet part but missed the workouts I did not gain weight. So, it's a great way for me to maintain my weight, but I just don't think I can use it to lose signifigant body fat.

I am not blaming the diet or program itself, but more my personal life and schedule. I work fourteen hour shifts four times a week and overtimes on top of that. I have a wife and three kids plus two dogs. Getting to the gym consitently is not easy. I believe if you have the time and schedule to get into the gym than BFL will work for anyone. But, at least on Atkins you lose weight whether you are working out or not. If I miss a workout on Atkins it isn't a big deal. I still lose weight.

Why back to Atkins? My first experience with Atkins I lost around thirty five pounds. I read alot of negatives about Atkins on the internet that made me wary to do it. I found these negatives to be false in my own case. Here's what I found to be untrue for me.

1- Atkins will make your cholesterol go up
2- Atkins will cause your blood pressure to rise
3- Atkins will make you grumpy and irritable
4- Atkins will make you tired and non-energetic
5- The weight you lose on Atkins is mostly water and lean muscle, not fat.
6- You will gain all the weight back that you lose.

These were the major things I was hearing about Atkins when I started it. I found every single one of those to be wrong in my case. In my job I have to get a complete medical physical every year. My first physical after eight months of Atkins was A+ My blood pressure was down from the year before. My resting heart rate was down. My HDLs were up and my LDLs were down. I was not irritable or non-energetic. My blood sugar stayed nice and level all the time so I never felt that mid-afternoon "crash" that alot of people feel every day. And as far as gaining the weight back....well what diet out there can you go off and NOT gain back the weight. My mistake was going off in the first place.

I also have to mention a recent study out of Stanford, the longest of its kind to date, where the Atkins diet came out on top by a significant amount. The study shows that people on Atkins lost 40% more fat than people on the next best diet. The article I read didn't mention what the "next best" diet is.

So, here's to another try at weight loss, one that I know from personal experience works. From this last study I can do it without fear or doubts to the benefits. I'm thinking that I can probably slowly transition to more of a BFL lifestyle once I lose the weight I want. I will probably count the carbs still. If I start gaining weight, I will cut back the carbs until I find the magic number. So, I guess in the end I will be doing kind of a blend of Atkins and BFL. Atkins For Life? I would do this just because I find the food choices and diet of BFL preferable to Atkins. So, if I can use Atkins to lose the weight first, then BFL to maintain, that would be ideal.

I will keep my progress posted here.