Not much to report this week. I’m back down to 225, which I was disappointed with at first because I was hoping to be lower than that by this point. However, then I thought to myself, “holy crap! I’ve lost 12lbs in the past month and a half and I did it in a completely sustainable way. AWESOME!” Sometimes, you just need to remind yourself how well you’re doing overall so you don’t get too depressed with the little setbacks. [Read more...]
I’m writing this on Thursday, October 20th. I’m frustrated and angry. The details are unimportant but the results on my eating are. To preface this, I want to say that I had a great day so far. I ran 5 miles this morning, had a healthy breakfast with some nuts and a bit of fruit and then a healthy lunch (chicken). I haven’t had a diet coke all day (had one this entire week) and I’m feeling great. And then it happened, I had a really crappy meeting and I was annoyed. I didn’t feel like working and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
In the past, this would mean a trip to McDonald’s and 3000 calories of junk food plus a gallon of diet coke. Seriously, my usual “I’m frustrated and I want to hit someone” order at McDonald’s was a double quarter pounder with cheese, 20 nuggets, two snack wraps, fries and an extra large diet coke. That’s an insane amount of food, especially when you consider this isn’t instead of any of my regular meals, it’s in addition to it. I would always justify it though by saying to myself “well, they screwed you over and you’re allowed a treat to feel better.” [Read more...]
This is week five of my project to get back to a healthier lifestyle. If you recall from a couple of weeks ago, my goals at this point were:
And The Goals Were:
How am I doing? [Read more...]
That’s me in the picture. It was taken maybe a week ago, when Julie and I went to Half Moon Bay. You notice that big smile on my face? That’s because I’m happy. I’m doing something fun with somebody I love. The last few weeks, since we came back from our honeymoon have been great. I feel good, I’m happy and I’m doing well because of it. I’m more productive at work, I’m more at ease with my friends and I’m doing far better with my fitness goals than I thought possible.
I’m not quite sure where this post is headed by the way, I’m typing this as it occurs to me, but it seems like the connection between physical health and emotional health is undeniable. Feeling better in general has led me to feeling better about my body and health. It’s led me to have more motivation for my goals, health related and otherwise. I wonder if this is why married men are on average healthier and tend to live longer. I suppose it could be because we tend to do less stupid things when married but I also believe it’s because we’re happier and happiness is conducive to a healthier life. Happiness means less stress and stress is the thing that kills most of us. [Read more...]
I’m writing this on a Saturday afternoon. I went hiking this morning and I’m about to head out later this afternoon for some outdoor fun at the park. I weighed myself on Friday and the scale showed 230lbs. Goal Achieved! However, what about all my other goals? [Read more...]
I was miserable last weekend. I was congested, my throat ached, my head hurt and my body felt like a 500lb gorilla had used it as a punching bag. I was feeling and acting pretty pitiful when my wife said “how about you take some Tylenol?” My guess is I was annoying the crap out of her with my whining but that question got me thinking, why don’t I take more medication? I resist taking anything from Tylenol to aspirin. I didn’t take the anti inflammatory medication my doctor prescribed for my elbow and I didn’t take any anti histamines when I developed an allergy to something unknown last summer. Why not?
Julie and I arrived home three nights ago after an amazing two weeks in Croatia (which I highly recommend for anyone looking for a beautiful place to go). I’m tired, I’ve had a miserable weekend because I caught a cold on the flight home but I’m also incredibly happy. The honeymoon showed me just how much I love her and how wonderful our life together will be. However, since this is a health and fitness blog and not a marriage blog, let me focus on a couple of thoughts that occurred to me while I was gone.
First of all, my choices are no longer mine alone. In the past, if I wanted to eat poorly and not exercise that was my choice and the consequences were mine and mine alone. That’s no longer true. My health is now Julie’s concern as well, especially when we’re talking about kids and a future together. The consequences of my choices are hers as well as mine. This is difficult for some people to accept and I can see why. It’s not easy to take responsibility for another person, to be accountable for what they do and to allow your own actions to be dictated in part by them. In effect, it means I’ve abdicated some control of my body, my decisions and my choices to her, just as she’s done for me. That’s a lot to accept but I accept it willingly because it’s part of our commitment. [Read more...]
