Lying around Vancouver

Been gone a little while now, travelling for work has taken me away from the keyboard and kept me too busy to blog recently.

I know travel is where my weight loss can really struggle. It should be a place I can make great headway, I have the time and facilities to work out, I can easily choose which restaurants I eat at and what I consume. I have no other responsibilities eating into my time.

But it never works that way.

I lose my accountability on the road, I make excuses. I eat poorly, I skip the gym.

But worst of all, I lie to myself.

"that was a good workout"
"I can afford another slice"
"I'll do two workouts tomorrow"

All lies, lies that lead to pounds, lies that lead to guilt, lies that lead to frustration, pounds, guilt.
Guilt and frustration lead me to saying the worst lie of all "I'll start again tomorrow"
And then I eat....I binge, I blow weeks of effort in hours.

Sure I do a few things, a 10K walk one day, some elliptical another. But nowhere near enough.

And when you are trying to change your body and it's take on food, you need to keep the good habits, the bad ones come to easy. You can't just flip a switch and say ok, back at it. And so I return home, a little bigger, but worse, with no momentum, no pattern of success.

And you start over.

The first step is this blog, taking ownership of the behaviour, admitting it, and starting the good behaviours again. Today was a good first step, no failings today, not exemplary, but a good solid day.

Tomorrow, I'll ask the same of my self again, eat right, do a workout. Start the good patterns, be honest with myself.

No more lying around...No more lying.

@fatfitman

The 260lb bounce

For those of you losing weight, do you have a number that gives you trouble?

I do, 260lbs.

I've been over that number for along time now, and every time I approach it I bounce off it like some sort of damned trampoline.

I can't tell you the number of times I've hit it, like some sort of perverse paddle ball I slam into 260, then BOING, 261, 262, 263, refocus, 262, 261, 260, 259.8 (feel the trampoline stretch...) BOING 261 262.

I'm sick of it.

So the question is why? And I hate the answer.

The answer is me.

 I focus for a few weeks, I maintain my discipline, and about the time I get near that milestone, I start to slack off. It happened again over the last couple of weeks. My commitment, particularly to healthy eating, started to slack off a bit and the hard work I had done to get down to 260 goes out the window.

The number actually means nothing. Nada, zilch. It's only in my head because I let that correlation start to convince me that somehow 260lbs is different than 261.

It isn't. It's just a number, one of many I have to work through in order to achieve my goals.

How many of your life's challenges are like that? How often do you say, "oh, that's the one I can't get past"? Are you being honest with yourself? Is it a true milestone? A true obstacle? or just something you let get into your head?

 Is it simply you?

My demonic trampoline isn't 260lbs, its my own inability to maintain the commitment required to punch through it.

I was 261.4 this morning, after being 260.2 earlier last week. When I next write this blog, my goal is to be able to tell you that I maintained my discipline, that I ate healthy, that I exercised, and that I blew a giant hole in that 260lb trampoline, and tossed it in the trash, never to see it again.

Find your obstacle, the one you can't get past, and spend the next couple weeks with me breaking through it. Come back here Feb 6th with your own tale of conquest!

Follow me on twitter @fatfitman

A new year begins for all, and a new decade for me!

Monday seems like a good day for regular blog entries, so we'll aim for that going forward, as I said before, ideally weekly, but bi-weekly at the least.

Welcome to 2012 everyone, a new beginning to the rest of our lives. A chance as we say goodbye to the old year to say hello to new habits and a new outlook.

And for me, a special milestone last Thursday, my 40th birthday. Celebrated in fine style with my beautiful wife.

You can't ever move forward unless you know where you have been, and you can't measure your changes unless you know where you are now. So, some key points for where I am now.

Current Weight : 261.4 (made it through new years and my birthday with a 3lb loss, not bad, now time to really go)
Current BMI: 35.4  (Obese Class II)
Waist Circumference : 45in (40inches is the point at which heart and diabetes risk increases)
5K Personal Best : 43:03.9
# of pushups before exhaustion = 18 (ugh, wow that's low)


Turning 40

I've been asked a few times in the last few days if turning 40 has bothered me, if I feel older. The simple answer is no. But there is a more complex one.

Turning 40 has been difficult for one reason, from a standpoint of health very little has changed for me in the past decade. Make no mistake, overall my life is VASTLY superior to where it was 10 years ago. Family, job, happiness, all dramatically better. But the one thing, the health of this now 40 yr old body, that hasn't changed. I've gotten older, but I've missed so many opportunities to get fitter.

So rather than languish on that shortcoming, I need to use it to power me into the next 40 years. I don't want to waste 10 years, 10 weeks, 10 days or 10 minutes in my drive to a healthier 41 year old me. I don't like feeling this way, and it is in my power to stop.

They say you are only as old as you feel, well I can't wait to find out how much younger I feel as the weight comes off and the energy goes up!

I have to give a couple of shout outs here, first thanks to @bl11courtney for the retweet recently, great to have some many new people on board with me!

Second, to my friend NS, congratulations on your 30lb weight loss. Your success is inspirational!

Hang in there everyone, keep at your plan, keep looking at your goals, keep yourselves and others motivated for change, and lets all change together!

@fatfitman