The Human Engine, When did you last change your oil?

Friday, November 12, 2010

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I had an old 1984 Buick LeSabre once upon a time and that car looked like hell when I was through with it, there were dents, broken windows and it had about 200k miles on it, I inherited the car from my mother when she moved out of state when I was about 22 years old. I drove that car for more than a year with about a quart of oil in it right up until the time that I sold it to the scrap yard it never quit on me, it ran in lieu of the treatment that it was getting even if it knocked and dieseled when I tried to turn it off. There was damage to that engine and transmission but it held together just long enough for me to save up and buy myself a 1986 RX7 (yes I fit into an RX7 so zip it!) so it did its job and I didn't have to take care of it one bit in the time that I owned it but it didn't last as long as it could have. If we take care of our cars they will last a long time, sometimes when we beat the $hit out of them they keep on going but at some point something will break, it has to because it was not designed to work with extreme abuse and some are better than others at taking the abuse while still performing even if at a lesser standard than it was meant to.



That RX7 was WELL taken care of when I bought it, the thing ran like a top and that rotory motor hummed perfectly, I changed the oil regularly, washed and waxed it weekly and drove it everywhere. The fella that I bought the car off of had owned it since new and it had sixty some odd thousand miles on it when I purchased it and became the second owner, this car was my baby...for the six months. In my younger days lets just say that I was known to put after market parts into cars and proceed to beat the living hell out of them, this was starting to become the fate of that once pristine RX7. The car was taken care of all of its life until it met me and ultimately died at my hands and was sold off as a parts car the very next summer, yes I said parts car, so this car had a different life than that LeSabre but did share the same fate. Sometimes when things get taken care of properly they can still end in disaster because of all kinds of different problems or stupid decisions.



Engines work as they should when taken care of properly, change the oil regularly, tune ups help to keep things working and driving the way the car was meant to be driven will most times mean a reliable car for many years. When a car is not taken care of it may last for a while but eventually all of the parts that are wearing down every time it gets driven will fail and at that point the car is shot, we may be able to limp it back and fourth to work while it sputters and chugs along like that LeSabre did but it will be a short lived ride. I recently have been reflecting on some things that were in my life not too long ago and what I may have been doing to my body in the process of those things and the car analogy came to me, at 534 pounds I was beating the $hit out of my body just like I did that LeSabre. My heart, my lungs, my bones and muscles, all of my ligaments along with every part of my mental was getting the $hit beat out of it on a daily basis just because I weighed more than a quarter ton and was essentially running on a quart of oil and broken windows, I was fuvking myself and couldn't see it.



Something was going to fail catastrophically in short order if I hadn't changed the oil when I did, but does it mean that because there are fresh plugs and oil in the engine that it will now be a 200k mile engine? this I am unsure of. Like a car that was beat to hell and then changed owners where the new guy takes care of the car sure it will last longer now because its being taken care of but are there stressed bolts internally that will ultimately make the engine fail? or will that odometer reach 250k and beyond? perhaps I worry about things that should not be as close to the surface as they are, perhaps not. As a once 500 plus pound guy I think that there are worries that are valid and should be monitored and all at the same time I know that the oil is being changed regularly now and the engine is being run properly so it should last a good long while more with this maintenance routine.

We need to take care of our bodies as if they are the most precious thing that we own because they are, we cannot call the scrap yard up and have them tow away the shell of a Lesabre because a shiny new RX7 was bought, we get one go around and that's it and the scrap yard that we end up in has a 6 foot deep hole in it. These days I am a machine, I eat properly, I exercise daily and I live as clean as I possibly can the days of beating the $hit out of my cars is in the past and the days of me beating the $hit out of my body are over, that is until I get into the gym or onto my bike but that is another story.

You gonna end up in the scrap yard? or pull that oil and wax out and show a little love to yourself? I know which one I choose.

As Ever
Me

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Appreciation, what is that exactly?

Friday, November 05, 2010

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Today I am stealing an idea from somebody on my facebook friends list, Josie is posting things that she is grateful for for the next 30 days on her page and this idea somehow sounds like a cool idea so I shall do something similar. I don't know if I will be able to post EVERY day so I can't say for the next 30 days but I am going to attempt to post something that I am grateful for or something that I appreciate as often as I remember, this could end up being easy or it may be harder than I think but either way its an interesting venture.



So I wonder, what do I appreciate, there are so many things to choose from and so many different directions this can go in but I have to say that the thing that I appreciate today is my wife. She is my rock, she is there when I need her to be and she is there no matter what the situation, without her I am unsure how successful I would have been with my better health venture and she knows this but in the spirit of the appreciation thang, she gets the number one spot. The image that I posted is her standing next to a sun flower that we were growing, She is my hiking partner, my conscious and you will never find a kinder person on the planet, which is subject to debate on the days that I don't put the dishes into the cabinet! she is a huge part of why I am able to do what I do.

Ok, ok enough of the sappy stuff, back to the weight loss related chatter, This week I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off and finding time for myself has been quite the task and because of that I haven't gotten many posts up this week, such is life I suppose. The little bit of time that I have had to myself has been spent at the gym so you can't fault me too much for that right? I mentioned that I got some seat time at a tattoo shop and because of the placement of one of them its bothering me when I lift weights so I have pretty much spent my time this week on Cardio more than lifting and Saturday through Tuesday I didn't even make it to the gym because of an unrelated issue so its been an odd week for me over all. Making good choices with my intake hasn't been hard for the better part of the week and Halloween did toss a couple hurdles in my way but I think we made it through pretty much unscathed for the most part and this week the theme will be hardcore workouts.

The things that I do now compared back a couple hundred pounds ago and the way that I do them aren't comparable, Making good choices with diet and exercise force me to stay healthy these days. I have said this on my blog countless times but I believe that anyone who wants it can lose weight and get healthier than they are currently, the biggest part of weight loss is the mental because as soon as we realize that fact everything else doesn't seem so hard.

A bit random but that's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

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DXXXIV...

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

I have in 1037 days transformed my entire body into what it is today, what exactly that is I am unsure of but I know that its much healthier than it was at 534 pounds. This weekend a couple things happened, Halloween came and went but not without me dipping into the pumpkin for a couple few pieces of chocolate and I got some seat time at the tattoo shop on Saturday which was cool as its been a while since my last ink. Friday I hurt my neck yes yes I am ok so don't start crying, and that kept me away from the gym until this afternoon, so a whole four days of no work outs had me bouncing off the walls and pretty uncomfortable between that and having to watch where I placed parts of my body because of the new tattoos.

Working as hard as possible to get as close to or surpass the goals that I have set in front of me is all that I can do in order to make the deadline, This is what I will do in order to realize all of my health goals. Sometimes there will be obstacles, sometimes it will be as smooth as silk and then there will be the times that an injury or something else stops the bustin' ass cold in its tracks but keeping all of the underlying framework that has been built in check will keep me rollin' in the right direction indefinitely.

Anyone can do this, each and every person out there that has a weight problem can grab control and drop all of the extra padding that is holding them back from doing what they want to do in life and I believe that statement to the very core of me. If I were to somehow gain 200 pounds back onto my bones I would have to say that I would be completely at fault because even if I was immobilized I control what goes down the hatch, taking responsibility for ourselves is pinnacle in making a lasting change in how we live. Learning that I have control, that You have control of your intake and whether an attempt is made at some real exercise is a step that needs to be taken in order for this to work, without it I am unsure that success can be had in a world where weight loss and better health is the goal.

I weighed 534 pounds at one point in my life and I will never go back to that life, ever...

DXXXIV...Never again...

As Ever
Me

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This is a Rooster...The scals says??

Friday, October 29, 2010

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Its that time of the week where the number on the scale counts towards the blog tally for weight lost or gained. This being the first full week of the 2000 calorie bump up I wasn't sure what would happen this morning so when I woke up I staggered into the living room and stepped onto my scale, and.... All week I have been weight lifting on a regular basis and have been diligently working out whether it be at the gym or out on a trail, I have done my part is the point that I am trying to get at and yes I did have a single day where I mussed up the program but even with that I should have lost something. My feeling has been that eating more calories to lose more weight feels counter intuitive, I always say "eat less move more" right? so this eating more thing just didn't jive with me mostly because I have eaten 1700 calories for so long that its become habitual for me to stop when I hit that number. Oh! wait, I stepped on the scale so I suppose before I get into anything else I should share what it said right?


Points to you if you get this reference.

I could say that the scale was kind to me but I would rather say that I was not kind to the fat on my bones instead, seems more fitting to me. I this morning weighed in at three hundred twenty seven and four tenths pounds and that is a 2.8 pound drop for the week, coming in at 327.4Lbs was pretty cool because its a pretty good drop for the week and I feel like I am on a roll again which does wonders for the positive attitude. I don't want to say that the up in calories was the key because I have upped my exercise routine along with it but the extra calories certainly doesn't seem to be hurting the cause, If we get a few weeks in a row with decent losses i will call it the new calorie allowance, for now its still on a trial basis.

Last week at my gym there was a fella doing body fat percentages with a little gizmo that I held in front of me after he input my height, weight and age, he offered me a free evaluation and offered to show me a few movements with weights that I may not be doing, sort of a fine tune for my workout so I will be doing that this afternoon. This is something completely out of my comfort zone because I have always been self sufficient in that respect and have always just researched things on my own to create my workout plans and calorie allowances. Could it hurt to have this fella walk around though the free weights with me? nah, I am sure that he will be showing me everything that I am already doing but in the spirit of doing something different I signed up, what could it hurt? right?

Today was not going to be a lifting day for me because I have an appointment tomorrow that I don't want to be sore or fatigued for but I think that just going through the motions and getting the "fitness eval" from a trainer could be good for my mental. This week has been good and starting off by stepping out of my box (even if it is ever so slightly out of that box) will hopefully keep me going at the same pace that I have been at because I feel good and the weight is coming off again and that's the point. I am down 2.8 pounds this week for all of the hard work, I am stronger than I was last week and I know that as long as I put in the work that I am destined to succeed straight to my goal, no excuses, no whining, just going to keep the momentum for as long as I can and try to get to that April goal of being 275 pounds or less.

Halloween is here and it will just be another day for me, no candy, no sweets and nobody will stop me from getting to my goal, the way I see it is that I will get some extra exercise in by walking the kiddos around the neighborhood, I suppose its all about how you look at things, don't let it be an excuse to eat badly, capisci?

As Ever
Me

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Every journey begins with a step...

Thursday, October 28, 2010

I am heading into my second week of raising my calories to 2000 per day, this is the first whole week that I will have eaten that many calories per day and am going to see what the scale says about it. Sticking to my plan has been fairly easy this week besides one day where some stress stepped in and for the life of me I can't seem to control the snatching of extra calories when I am stressed in certain ways, that $hits gotta stop. I have made it to the gym every day for the last almost two weeks barring Tuesday which is the same day that the little stress bomb hit me in the face and I was on a good roll with the weight to that point too so I am doubly aggravated that it happened but it did and there is no good in dwelling on it. I had signed up for a fitness evaluation at my gym which was suppose to happen Tuesday and I rescheduled that because of my mood and lack of interest in anything healthy so I have that to do tomorrow after I weigh in for the blog, lets see what the fella says about my general health status.



Curiosity has got me thinking about what the scale will tell me in the AM, I was steadily going down in weight until Wednesday morning, this morning its coming down again so tomorrow I will either level out and show a small loss or no loss depending on whether I am still sore from the weight lifting. I am still not completely assimilated to my weight lifting program and have been adding movements to each workout so I am still feeling a tad sore afterward but that soreness is lessening so perhaps another week before I am in a rut and chugging along where I want to be. I mentioned my intake being on par besides Tuesday and I have been recording every bite that goes into my body diligently into my excel sheet and I still get emails asking me to keep posting the menus so I want to try and get those out there as much as possible and with that have a look at Wednesdays intake.

Breakfast
7:15am
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

10:30 AM
1 Dark chocolate/strawberry zone bar 180

Lunch
2:00 PM
2 deli slims 200
3oz deli turkey 100
1 T Miracle whip 40
1oz lays light chips 75
1 pickle 10

3:00 PM
1 Nectarine 70
1 Banana 105

4:15 PM
2 Plums 60

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 80 calorie rolls 160
5oz sloppy joe 225
11oz potato 275

8:30 PM
1/2 cup 1% milk 55
1 scoop whey protein 130

Grand total of 2015 calories for the day which is right in there, I am getting comfortable with the extra calories and am finding that its allowing me to keep my normal day to day but I am adding more fruits to my days along with some whey shakes so that's all good news. Adding more fruits and veggies is on my mind constantly and I think that I normally do a decent job of getting enough into my days but I also think that I could use a little more so look for that in the menus in the next few weeks. With the addition of the more regular lifting schedule and the extra calories I am feeling that seven days from tomorrow the scale will jump down more than a couple pounds because of the normalizing of the lifting and the extra calories but of course that is to be found out.

Almost anything is possible if we put out minds to it, that statement isn't something that I believed back when I was heavy enough to consider that it would kill me but after battling with my health and weight for the last couple years I know it to be true. Somewhere out there is a man or woman that is reading this for the first time or for the 300th time and feeling that its impossible because of this or that or the other thing that's ailing them and I tell you that you are the only thing holding yourself back.

I started out at 534 pounds, a disk injury in my back which caused me more than a little bit of pain EVERY day of my life sometimes to the point of leaving me laying in bed with tears in my eyes. Unable to walk further than a few hundred feet before pain and being winded would make me stop dead in my tracks. The only person that was holding me back was myself, no one was forcing me to drink a 2 liter of coke with my sack of Taco bell, no one was making me order a Super sized double quarter pounder with cheese meal with a side of another quarter pounder for lunch at McNasty and nobody was making me drink a gallon of milk per day so even with the extreme pain in my back from the disk injury that still gets me some days I was the person holding myself back. I will never claim that its an easy process because its harder than anyone that has never struggled with it will ever know but I will say that we need to be stronger than whatever it is that holds us back in life or we will always measure less than we could in the grand scheme of life and it will be at our own hands.

YOU control what goes into your mouth, YOU control how you live your life and YOU are the only one holding yourself back, just like me and every other sack of meat and bones walking this planet so put that cookie down and go for a walk today, even if its only a few steps.

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

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