Popped my Gym Cherry.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Monday provided me my first chance to check out the gym that I joined so I headed on over after dropping my daughter off at school and have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the entire experience. My initial feeling was that I would walk in and it would be all eyes on the fat kid but of course that's not how it went down at all. I had decided before I walked in that I was just going to take a walk around and check out the machines and then I would take a ride on a stationary bike, so after a brief walk around the whole gym I found an unoccupied bike and hopped on. I rode for 25 minutes on that bike and then onto a recumbent bike for a short pedal on a much higher setting than I did on the regular bike and ended up riding for another 7 minutes and something that I noticed was that no one could care any less about anyone else that was in the room, besides me of course as I am sort of a people watcher, funny how that worked out eh?



I found the staff to be very helpful and one girl even offered to come over and show me whatever I needed to know about anything in the whole place after I told her that it was my first time "just come on over and get me if you need help with anything" and she even checked in with me about 20 minutes after I got there to make sure that I had figured out what I needed to which was cool. I found that the atmosphere was very relaxed and it was just a bunch of people that seemed to want to workout and move on, this was only the first time in there so that opinion may change but I enjoyed myself while I was there this time around. I was offered a "fitness evaluation" at no charge which includes a talk with a trainer as well as a workout so that they might gauge my fitness level along with some other things like taking a measurement of my body fat etc. I declined as none of it really interested me for now because I have a good idea of what I want to do and I really don't care what my percentage of body fat is currently, I think that we can all agree that its high, perhaps down the road this will interest me but not right now.

My intake came in at 1715 total calories for the day and I think that I over guesstimated the calories on my home made chicken soup so I am probably just under that number. To say that I was hydrated yesterday is very much an understatement as I drank 1.25 gallons of Green tea and about a gallon of straight H2O and obviously I got some movement in at the gym, have a look at yesterdays menu.

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

10:30 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

Lunch
2:30 PM
4oz hot capicola 240
1 lavash bread 100
lettuce/tomato/pickle 40
less than a T miracle whip 25
7oz strawberries 70

Dinner
6:30 PM
2 cups home made chicken soup 350
1 multigrain english muffin 100
smart balance spread 20

7:30 PM
2 oranges 170

8:30 PM
1oz turkey pepperoni 70

I am off to a good start this week with everything that I need to be and I plan on heading to the gym again this afternoon at some point. Shooting for a 4 pound loss this week is still on the wall, making that number will make a certain fella very happy come Friday and at the same time if it is under four pounds that same fella will not be too disappointed. Now that I have my initial gym trip out of the way all of my apprehension has gone away and maybe I will explore a new machine today, or maybe I will just ride the bike for a week to get a little more familiar before I go falling off of an elliptical machine! I do look forward to starting in on the weights but again I want to go slow for a few reasons one of which I already mentioned and another is so that I don't injure myself by trying to do too much all at once.

That's it, the end of a post so until next time keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

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Easy like Sunda...er Monday morning..and a trip to the gym perhaps?

Monday, October 05, 2009

This weekend provided me with a chance to move forward onto the next stepping stone in my weight loss/better health process and with a light push from Wify I went ahead and joined a local gym. I have been thinking about doing this for some time now because I want to start lifting weights again to hopefully gain back some of my lost muscle from the last year and a half and on Saturday we just happened to have a free hour and were right next door to the gym. In we walked and the overly cheerful girl behind the counter said hi and gave us a "complimentary bottle of water" and off we went to look around, long story short I walked out with a passcard and I am now a member of a gym.



The plan is to go this afternoon after I drop my daughter off at school to have a looksie at some of the equipment and get my first gym workout in, I am a gym virgin so as dumb as it sounds I feel like I am going to be a fish out of water in there and slightly hesitant to go. The fat guy in me says "you don't belong in a gym, just keep going at home" and I know that is a silly way to look at it but when you are have been as big as me feeling as if all eyes are on gigantor is a hard feeling to shake. I will get over the feeling but I would be a liar if I said that it wasn't there, I mean I have been to the YMCA years ago but somehow that feels I don't know safer? as far as that all eyes on feeling goes and I was not 500 pounds back then either, I know I know You say "but you are not 500 pounds now so whats the problem man?" though I may not be 500 pounds currently I am still a big guy and I do think there will be a getting comfortable learning curve that I will have to get through.

I did pretty well this weekend with my intake even though Saturday night I went out to a wine tasting benefit with Wify. Saturday I ate very light all day in preparation for the buffet at the benefit but I will admit that I just ate and drank what I wanted to while there because from the beginning I have said that events will not be compromised because I want to live healthier. I know that some of you will agree with that last statement and say "You gotta live man, go out and enjoy!" and that is a great way to look at it as long as the other times are strict and regulated, then there will be those that say "You compromised your health by eating not so good and drinking a couple beers and some wine, for shame Mister Meatball" and you could be right too BUT the way that I choose to do this lifestyle change is simple. I believe that the human body is a machine and we are animals at our most basic, our bodies need certain vitamins and nutrients to perform daily and there is room for variations from time to time because we need that for survival. My body is not a pie chart, I will not cannot live in a way that disallows me to have a beer or a night out without packing up my Salter scale and calorie counting book.



Sunday I came in low for calories finishing up at 1450, I don't know how that happened because I did not plan on it but when I realized that it was so low it was 9:00 pm and I decided that I would not eat just to get more calories in. I made a really light dinner and that may have contributed to the low calorie number, I made baked Tilapia fillets with a tomato sauce, chopped red onions and thinly sliced green peppers straight out of the garden along with some rice that I seasoned with 2 kinds of peppers and some chopped sauteed onions. Over all the weekend went good and I can positively say that I am back on the wagon, I will go one step further and say that I am driving the wagon and feel like my new old self again and have my drive to get below 300 back.

Joining the gym was a big step for me because the only reason for the hesitation was anticipating that awkward fat guy in a gym feeling but now that actual cash has changed hands I will have to get over that feeling and get to working out. I am looking forward to heading out in a couple hours to join in and be a part of "that gym crowd" and all at the same time it sort of feels like the first day at a new school and I am dreading it, funny how something so fickle can bring all of that up eh? In a way I am hoping that by me posting my plans to go this afternoon it helps me to not chicken out of my first trip.

I looked up and noticed that this post is getting rather lengthy so I will call it done and let you kind people that care enough to read get back to your day. Thanks for reading along and Thank you for all of the support that you give me, if anyone has some ideas for getting past the first day of school feeling I am all ears! and with that, this post has run its course.

As Ever
Me

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Saturday and my menu etc etc etc..

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Friday went well over all where everything weight loss is concerned for me, I ate within my calorie range and I did some calisthenics for exercise, I drank more than enough to stay hydrated and went to bed early. All of that is great because I have a feeling that today will be less stellar on all fronts, Hydrated? I can do that, Exercise? I can probably squeeze in some push ups and light dumb bell stuff, It's the sleep and calories that may suffer a bit today because of a wine tasting benefit that Wify bought tickets to a couple weeks ago. Now I really dislike wine so that should be easy enough but there will be brewery's there as well as hors devours and a buffet so staying within calories will be a challenge and I have no clue how late we will be staying so sleep may experience some short comings tonight as well. All of that is ok though, just because I am eating well and doing all of the other things that go along with losing the kind of weight that I have lost to date and still have to lose doesn't mean that I cannot do things like this from time to time. I know, I know, "But you just got back on track! don't blow it man!" no way no how will I slip back out of my new range of focus, I lived like this for long enough to know that when I am focused I can step over the line slightly and recover quickly, besides that its paid for and I ain't lettin it go to waste!

Here is a look at the menu from Friday.

Breakfast
7:45 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

Lunch
1:30 PM
1 lavash bread 100
4oz grilled sesame/teriyaki chicken 200
tomato/lettuce/pickle/onion 40

3:30 PM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

Dinner
6:30 PM
8oz ground turkey 320
2 80 cal rolls 160
4oz grilled pattypan squash 40
1/2 serving mac N cheese 150

8:15 PM
1/4 of a graham cracker 35

9:00 PM
2 oranges 130

Grand total of 1705 calories for the day and 1.25 gallons of green tea went down the hatch along with about half a gallon of straight H2O, I am back. Tonight I will make the best choices for what is offered at this Benefit with food, I will sample the local brews and I will not feel an ounce of guilt for it. I will be back on track for Sunday and I am eating light this morning and afternoon to sort of offset tonight somewhat. This week I am looking for at least a 4 pound loss, did I just say 4 pounds? I did say it..

Until next time keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

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Weighing in on weighing in...once again.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Today is Friday so that means that it is time to get on the scale and report what the verdict for the week is, getting right to the number this week, I weighed in at 339 again so no change from last week, sort of. I say sort of because I was actually up early on in the week from last Fridays weigh in because of not following through with what I was suppose to be doing. Tuesday and Wednesday I read through a lot of my older posts and knuckled down which has brought me back around to where I need to be with this whole program so though I have lost weight this week it does not show on the scale because of the loss of focus mid week. Tuesday night I weighed 345 pounds which was post dinner so I am sure the number was exaggerated somewhat but even stll it was more than I cared to see on the scale so back on track I went.

My calories for Thursday were on par coming in at 1655 total and I even squeezed a half of a Sam Adams Summer ale in there after a nice walk last night with Wify and Heather. I am being prodded into doing a 5k in December by Heather AKA Heater AKA Pumpkinface73 and yesterday I get a text message telling asking me if I wanted to walk the route that the 5k is run on so I agreed and Wify and myself headed over. The route is 3.5 miles and we walked it in exactly one hour and other than the balls of my feet rubbing in my sneakers a bit I didn't really feel the walk too much. I have not been doing much walking/running at all and expected the rubbing but it was sort of a wake up call that I need to start doing more of it because I was at a point where 3 miles would not phase me at all in any way and my feets seem to be getting soft because of the relaxed position I have taken with the run/walk time that I should be doing.

I cannot explain it but I am somehow back into the state of mind that I have been for most of the last year and a half and feel as if I again have target to fixate on and strive to get to. This week seems to be a wash and I weigh the same this Friday as I did last week but the biggest difference in this Friday vs last week is that I have my focus back. I am tracking everything that goes into my body again, I am exercising pretty regularly again and most importantly my head is in the game again, that is the recipe for more weight loss if I ever seen it.

I think that's it for today, I have some green tea beeping in the microwave right now so its time to get on up and away from this laptop, grab my tea and get some movement going in the way of playing with my 4 year old who is hounding me to "go jump on the bed" so until next time keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

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New boss same as the old boss?

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Funny thing about being committed to something and the way that you feel over all because of it, I have been back in a frame of mind that will lead me down the path in the right direction again for one whole day and I already feel like my new old self again. I ate within my calorie range yesterday and I got out for a ride on my bike, a cold ride but a ride none the less. I also got enough sleep last night and that is most likely why I feel good today but a combination of all of the above is not beyond possibility either and its only 9:00 am and I am wanting to post on this blog so maybe I am back into the routine. I did come in low for calories yesterday with a total of 1370 for the whole day along with my typical gallon of green tea and about a half gallon of straight H2O so I am hydrating properly and obviously I didn't eat too much.


This is a photo from mid Jan 2008, I am not going back to that so again re-focused I have become.

I had a few distractions over the last month and the ones that could be taken away were all taken away yesterday and I will not revisit them as they are nothing important and were obviously enough to make me veer off the beaten path where my health is concerned. Some of the distractions are not so easy to remove so I am afraid that I am stuck with them for the duration, one of these distractions is the gallbladder surgery that I need to get and am putting off for no real good reason other than its not something that I want to do, all in due time I suppose.

Re-reading some of my old posts yesterday brought some things back into focus for me, while I am leaps and bounds past where I started off I am not out of the woods yet and reading the posts from the beginning of my trip again brought back some of the old feelings. I read the story of a guy that was honestly and wholeheartedly afraid that the time left on the planet was limited and unpredictable because of extra weight that was being carried around. I remember how it felt to walk up a flight of stairs and be completely out of breath for doing so and the embarrassment that came with that as well as the attempt to hide that fact from my wife by pretending to do something in the hall or walking to the bathroom to let the breathing come down a bit before actually walking into the bedroom. I read a post where I went for a walk to a playground "a couple of blocks away from our house" and I can remember feeling like I had just worked out for an hour because of that walk that was literally a block and a half away, for me at the time it was a big deal to be able to make that walk and I hid that from my wife as well. I am not that guy any more, I am not going to be the guy that lost 200 pounds and faded into the internet with that false accomplishment of almost making it out of being on the edge of a short life because of terrible health habits and I will not hide anything from my wife again because I am too embarrassed to admit that I have had a problem with eating.

I won't go back to the old way that I was living my life, I have come too far for that. Its amazing what looking at some side by side pictures and re-reading some old posts will do for getting a frame of mind back to the top of the pile.

Tomorrow is another day and another post shall be here for you to read with your morning Joe or tea, as always I thank you for following along with what I am doing.

As Ever
Me

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