The "More To Go Around" Krez!
Bust'n out all over! One year ago, Wow, even my fingers look chunky - LOL
Wooo, the flash lit the eyes up but at least no red-eye, and look no more chins!
Okay it’s officially been one year since I started my healthy lifestyle change. For those who have watched me closely know that I haven’t really been on much of a diet, rather I decided to keep it simple and smart. I simply monitored my caloric intake and chose what I shoved in my mouth a bit more wisely. I also did at least a half-hour a day of some sort of extra exercising. What I mean by extra is outside of my normal everyday walking around the office or campus in general. On top of that I would do something for thirty minutes and more if I had the time. I walked at least once around the campus walkway (close to a mile,) twice a day if I could (each trip took me about 15 min.)
Of course I didn’t always have time for this, but I didn’t sweat it, you really shouldn’t in my opinion, because I found that when you do, it just makes it easier for you to get frustrated over the whole thing. On some days, if time permitted, I would throw a little extra into my daily activity by jumping on my glider, but for no more than 30min. I found this to be important because when you do anything for more than 30min at a time it feels like a “job” or “work,’ and who wants to do any more work after a long day at the real thing? ;o)
So do yourself and your lifestyle a favor and stay away from any exercising that will take you beyond the 30min mark. I really found that if you do, the next time you need to do something, you think to yourself “hell I don’t have the time so I’ll just skip it.” But I found when you keep the time down, you quickly convince yourself that it will be over in such a short amount of time that you are encouraged by how little time is required and “just do it” to get it done and behind you. This sort of mental conditioning really seems to work, it sure did for me, and I’m pretty sure it would for you too. So give it a shot sometime, it’s only 30min out of the whole day and you don’t need to spend extra time getting into your car and going to any gym, etc.
If you do these two simple things, watch your calories and do at least 30min of extra exercise per day (walking is great and free) you will drop the weight. But you must be honest with yourself or you will fail. It will "sting" a little at first to see how many calories you may be eating (if you keep it honest – you must!) I was consuming something like 4000+ calories on average per day, on most days. On top of that I wasn’t really exercising much, even though I though I was in my mind…And when I did try to exercise I would try those hour long or more type of routines. Well what happened when I had a long day and all I thought to myself was “GOD, I have to work out now for what, an hour or so? No way!” Then I would make up some excuse like most of us I suspect do, and putt it off for another day, a day that never seems to quite make it. The correct saying more often than not really tends to be, “until another excuse comes my way.” – Hehehe.
I can’t stress how much I’ve found personal honesty to be for this to succeed. Did I splurge some of the time, you bet ya. But I was always a bit more conscious of how many calories I was consuming and never went too far over my target amount. Plus when I did I didn’t punish myself by trying to cut out more on the following day, simply I would try to do a little more exercising (walking or whatever,) if time permitted. Sooner than later you will find that your body is more forgiving than you first thought, about the calories, I p you consumed. I pretty much chalked this up to my metabolism kicking in. Don’t get me wrong here, you do need to keep your calorie intake as close to your target amount as consistently as you can, or your body will resist changing. Now if you are lucky you simply will not gain weight. But you want to loose the tummy, thighs, and butt right? So stay close to your target amount each day and do those 30min as often as you can! ;o)
Now that you know pretty much all that I really did to loose the weight, you want to know how much I really did shed, right?? Well since it has been officially one year since I started (January 21st, 2005,) I’ll go ahead and tell ya. I didn’t quite make my target weight of 180, but I weighed in at 183.5! In a week or two I will hit my target so no sweat, I’m happy. This brings me to one very important point I want to share and really should not leave out. If you are really serious about dropping the weight, and I believe you really can, if you do just a few simple things. You’re changes will come fast, but then will level off, too maybe a few pounds per week of loss (not bad though, hugh?!?) Maybe one pound to none at all on some small occasions, like around Holidays! But “Hey” no weight gain over the Holidays is a pretty big thing, and that’s a real possibility if you keep things going...I even lost a few over the Holidays and enjoyed some really good food too!
Remember this is a true lifestyle change and should be viewed as such, some times you have good weeks and sometimes you don’t, but you will soon find that is of little frustration because there is always better weeks than not. =o) So how far did I really come in my twelve months of walking and eating smart? By the way, just before telling you my starting weight I’ll share a little more with you about the word “diet.” I don’t call it dieting anymore because this really isn’t. I’ve also come to believe that the word really has a negative felling to it, at least on a mental level. You say “diet” and you’re body and brain goes “yuck! Let’s not do this.” So instead of using the word diet, just try “I’m eating smarter,” it has a nice ring to it and your brain seems to like the sound of it too. – Hehehe.
Oh hell I never told you my starting weight, well here it is…I first weight in at just around 245 pounds and now I’m at 183.5, with a grand total loss of 61.5 pounds. Now to be more accurate I’ve lost quite a bit more fat weight than that because I have put on a bit of the weight in muscle, how exactly I’m not really sure…But I guess all that going up and down the stairs and exercising on my Gazelle Glider (30min only) did a few things for me. I would say I’ve most likely put on at least ten pounds of solid muscle, so in actuality I’ve probably lost somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy five pounds of fat’ness. Halfway through the year I did start doing pushups at night, just whatever I could do and then would try to add a few more the next night (of course I missed nights too.) When I started I could only do about ten, but now I can almost reach up to seventy in one shot!
Here are some charts that show my advances over the year. Some do not show the full year, but that was as much as I could squeeze into the image that my website would support. However I feel they will give you a good idea of my changes.
One other thing if you like the charts they are from a site called CalorieKing.com, some of you might remember me posting about this site a year ago. I can’t stress enough how much I believe this site has helped me, so much so that I don’t think I could have lost the weight that I did without it. The site makes for an simple to use interface where you can chart your daily intake of food and track what you have left to consume, or how bad you cheated on a particular day. Bottom line is this, this is a great tool and if you want all the help you can, at getting the “ball” rolling, I encourage you to check this site out. The cost is very little, at $35.00 for the year; it is less than one month’s dues at the gym. Honestly, most of us stop going to after the first few weeks anyhow - LOL. ;o)
Well I’m sure I’ve left a lot out, so please ask away if you are curious. Oh yeah no pictures quite yet of the abs, but they are coming. They have come a long way, and honestly I think they are pretty good right now, but they are not as far along as I want. So for now, I’m holding off on the pictures, until I’m right where I want to be. What I can tell you is this. I have the definite lines on both sides of the stomach (running vertical), and the one directly down the center is visible. The two lines that cut horizontally across the middle, to form the “six-pack” are visibly starting to show now. I figure about another six months total for the abs, it’s pretty much just “cuts” I’m working on. I can honestly say that I’ve never been in this good of shape my entire life, and I did it in just twelve months! I know that sounds like a long time, but in the grand scheme of “yoyo diets” and good old bouts of frustration over ones weight, it zips by because you start seeing the results immediately!
Until then, enjoy life, eat smart…and do SOMETHING at least 30min a day, and you’ll get there whatever you goal may be. =o) I welcome any questions by the way or PATOS! (Yeah you heard me, Patos! They too can be healthy or rather acceptable – Pollo y Cilantro.) Nothing is off limits when eating smart; rather you’re choosing what you do eat, more wisely. ;o)
Well today I was pushing the calories a bit, nothing bad really. I was getting near my 2000 mark so I thought I would whip-up something really good and filling after working out, for dinner. I love fresh asparagus so I decided to sauté them in a little virgin olive oil with some diced garlic and a touch of Balsamic vinaigrette. Nummy-good tasting and it only takes about ten minutes! In the end I barely went over my calories mark for the day, but I ended up burning something like 600 exercising, so all is good! Anyhow my house smells like a nice garlic filled restaurant.
