haha
I just had to write a little more and get the excitement off my chest.
I think I just gotta put some of my best advice up here and go from there.
Here's a Top 5 list of some of best advice I've gained after losing so much weight:
1. Plain and simple, you gotta start eating REAL food and throw out the fake stuff. How do you tell the difference. Well, if it comes in some sorta "I dare ya...just BUY me" packaging...it's not all the good for you. Focus on foods that are close to their natural state.
What's that mean? Well, apples basically came off the tree, sat in some crates and are now in your cart. Nothing was processed. On the other end, apple juice had to be extracted, watered down, sugared up, and thrown in a fancy bottle before you cold put it in your cart. Here's another. A small handful of raw almonds (about 1/4 cup) = Awesome! An Almond Snickers bar on the other hand...yeah, not so good.
2. Eat less, more often throughout the day. Say 'wha? Instead of cramming a couple plates of food in your mouth 2 or 3 time a day, trying eating 5 or 6 smaller "meals" spread throughout the day. This one is awesome. You don't really feel "hungry" too often doing this. Kinda weird when you're used to eating huge amounts of food, yet feel hungry during the day.
Well, eating 5 or 6 small meals that contain good protein, fiber (think "crunchy" veggies, fruit, oatmeal, ect), and good fats allows you to actually feel satisfied and not hungry thoughout the day. Cool stuff
<---- Bonus tip....don't "fear" fat! The good stuff at least. (Think fish oil capsules, raw nuts and nut butters, proteins, olive oil, ect.) Good fats are gonna help flush fat out of your body, while on the other hand, crappy sources of cheap carbs (sugary junk, crackers, chips, boxed rice/pasta caseroles, etc) are gonna surge your body with "sugars" and slam on the switch for your fat generating machine like you've never seen. Nasty stuff!
3. Quit drinking calories and start drinking (a LOT of) water. It tastes good too...trust me! Once you get over the initial shock of not having all the sugary, fizzy sensations from sodas, etc in your mouth...you really start to appreciate how crisp and satisfying an ice cold glass of filtered water is. And no, it doesn't always "taste like metal." Getting over that metallic taste is so much easier than becoming a sweaty mess walking up stairs and leaving butt crack "sweat stains" when you get up from a chair. Am I right or what? Come on...give me a high five on that one! haha
4. Focus on short, but intense weight workouts that use the whole body. I'm no bodybuilder and don't ever plan on trying that out, you probably won't either....but that doesn't mean you should stay clear of lifting some weights. Lifting weights triggers your muscles to respond and guess what that does? It burns TONS of calories and you start melting fat and keep doing it long after the workout is done.
The cool thing is that it will probably only take you 20-30 minutes to lift weights...and you can turbo charge your results by finishing off with another 10-20 minutes of hard cardio intervals. I learned this from my friend Craig Ballantyne and this allowed me to keep that 100+ lbs far, far away from me. Nice!
Even better is that you don't necessarily have to lift "weights" to get the results. You just gotta lift, push, and pull "resistance"...and guess what your body is? It's weight resistance. As long as you can hit the 4 key areas on your body during your workout, you'll do fine. Keep it simple...but intense!
5. This one probably doesn't find its way on a lot of other people's lists...but it's a good one. Take some time each day to sit back and BREATHE. Lose yourself for a minute, forget all your problems...focus on what you're doing right and relax. Your body will thank you. Get plenty of rest. You'll actually perform better throughout the day in a shorter amount of time. You'll have more time to enjoy your newly molded body with whatever you want to do. Can't beat that!
Alright...so there you go. A nice little list of some powerful small steps that work. A lot of these I recently found out after I found out about Craig and his book Turbulence Training. He keeps it simple and to the point. I don't like to get all fancy with things and he hits the nail on the head in that area. I didn't find his ebook until earlier this year and that's when my fitness levels really started to take off. It took me a few years of fumbling around with exercise and trying to figure out my eating to start to feel confident in what I was doing. Then I found his book, his simplicity spoke to me, and things really started to take off.
Turbulence Training goes over everything from setting goals, nutrition, beginner workouts, to even what exercises to do when and how many seconds and minutes to the intervals. It's got everything. Plus when I got his ebook, I was surprised that he gave me a free membership to his site where I found extra bonus workouts, a nice forum.....one of my vices....mp3 Audio interviews. I'm a sucker for those things...haha. You definitely ought to check it out. It's top notch and I will stand by it for the rest of my life. That small $40 investment opened up a whole new world of quick, intense workouts I can do at home. Nice!
Alright...I'm done for the night...gotta be. I almost forgot I gotta get up for work in the morning.
haha
Sunday, January 6, 2008
I just had to do it!
I had to create a blog. The timing is just to great not to.
This is gonna be good. Trust me!
So tomorrow, Jan. 7th, will be the 5th year anniversary of one of the biggest "life changing" moments I've had. It was the day I decided to finally stop DYING and start Living! by doing something about my excessive weight.
I was 21 years old and I had topped 300 lbs. I estimate that I was about 315, but I was never sure since my bathroom scale only went up to 270lbs. The scale would roll over and I'd have to think about it for a minute or two. I then had to do some "math in my head" to figure out how much I actually weighed. haha...crazy I know!
I was in a major state of feeling like garbage.
I had just recently had a new photo taken for my driver's license since I was no longer a minor, and I quickly shoved it into my wallet, trying not to look. The license office had just got those new "instant digital license photo" cameras and I was curious to see how bad this photo was. I had been extremely overweight my whole life, I despised photos....and everyone know that these license photos are the worst.
I just had to look.
The only thing that ran through my mind was: "I'm killing myself! I can keep doing this. I gotta change. This is killing me!".
You could see it in my eyes. I was already "dead" inside. I had no "life" in me. I was a walking fat "non-person" blob. I had made up my mind that people thought I was disgusting, so I thought along those same lines as well. <----Mistake!
Let me tell you. Don't do that! You won't get anywhere in your life thinking like that. You can't defeat yourself before you even star to play! You know what I mean?!?!? haha
Anyway, right there, right on my bed, I broke down and vowed to change.
I HAD TO!
I was in college and I was a fat, sweaty, nervous, self conscious mess. I couldn't life that way anymore...and now that I could the "death" in my eyes...I caught a new glimmer of hope.
I should change.......I could change........I WOULD change!
That's all it took. That's how it started. It was the "lightbulb" moment when I finally saw things as they were...not how I had made it up in my mind. I was a person just like anyone else and I could change myself, loose the weight, and become "normal".
I'll have to add some of the simple details later when I have more time but let me put the "end of the book" here in the preface:
In one year, I lost over 100 lbs.
I like to think of it this way: I accidentally lost 100 lbs!
Probably think I'm crazy huh? How's this guy "accidentally" lose 100 lbs when I can't even shed these holiday 15.
Well.....
The best way I can put it is that I had more determination than I had smarts. I honestly didn't know how to go about losing weight, but there was almost a primal "intuition" that kicked in...maybe it was just plain common sense...I don't know...but it was powerful. I just started doing a lot of little simple things and they added up. I had nickeled and dimed myself into a "wealthier" health life.
Knocking off drinking soda....
going for nightly walks....
doing a simple full body workout.....
getting over the fear of what other people thought of this big fat guy working out...
eating "better" food...
All these small things.....you name it, I did it and IT WORKED!
I gotta quit writing before I end up using all my "brain juice" and spill my guts all in this first blog post.
haha
This is gonna be good. Trust me!
So tomorrow, Jan. 7th, will be the 5th year anniversary of one of the biggest "life changing" moments I've had. It was the day I decided to finally stop DYING and start Living! by doing something about my excessive weight.
I was 21 years old and I had topped 300 lbs. I estimate that I was about 315, but I was never sure since my bathroom scale only went up to 270lbs. The scale would roll over and I'd have to think about it for a minute or two. I then had to do some "math in my head" to figure out how much I actually weighed. haha...crazy I know!
I was in a major state of feeling like garbage.
I had just recently had a new photo taken for my driver's license since I was no longer a minor, and I quickly shoved it into my wallet, trying not to look. The license office had just got those new "instant digital license photo" cameras and I was curious to see how bad this photo was. I had been extremely overweight my whole life, I despised photos....and everyone know that these license photos are the worst.
I just had to look.
The only thing that ran through my mind was: "I'm killing myself! I can keep doing this. I gotta change. This is killing me!".
You could see it in my eyes. I was already "dead" inside. I had no "life" in me. I was a walking fat "non-person" blob. I had made up my mind that people thought I was disgusting, so I thought along those same lines as well. <----Mistake!
Let me tell you. Don't do that! You won't get anywhere in your life thinking like that. You can't defeat yourself before you even star to play! You know what I mean?!?!? haha
Anyway, right there, right on my bed, I broke down and vowed to change.
I HAD TO!
I was in college and I was a fat, sweaty, nervous, self conscious mess. I couldn't life that way anymore...and now that I could the "death" in my eyes...I caught a new glimmer of hope.
I should change.......I could change........I WOULD change!
That's all it took. That's how it started. It was the "lightbulb" moment when I finally saw things as they were...not how I had made it up in my mind. I was a person just like anyone else and I could change myself, loose the weight, and become "normal".
I'll have to add some of the simple details later when I have more time but let me put the "end of the book" here in the preface:
In one year, I lost over 100 lbs.
I like to think of it this way: I accidentally lost 100 lbs!
Probably think I'm crazy huh? How's this guy "accidentally" lose 100 lbs when I can't even shed these holiday 15.
Well.....
The best way I can put it is that I had more determination than I had smarts. I honestly didn't know how to go about losing weight, but there was almost a primal "intuition" that kicked in...maybe it was just plain common sense...I don't know...but it was powerful. I just started doing a lot of little simple things and they added up. I had nickeled and dimed myself into a "wealthier" health life.
Knocking off drinking soda....
going for nightly walks....
doing a simple full body workout.....
getting over the fear of what other people thought of this big fat guy working out...
eating "better" food...
All these small things.....you name it, I did it and IT WORKED!
I gotta quit writing before I end up using all my "brain juice" and spill my guts all in this first blog post.
haha
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