If you think little efforts don't matter, give it two months...

If you think little efforts don't matter, give it two months...

Not going to lie - this picture is just being used for clicks

No real visible or even noticeable progress is made in a single day or even a single week... But you take those days and weeks and add them up and it'll show.

Take smoking for example - You quit smoking and still feel like crap on the next day or two... well, duh... you don't magically get healthy overnight. But give that 3 weeks and see how it feels. 

Anything you want to do to become healthier - stopping smoking, going to the gym, giving up alcohol, eating better - whatever you do, give it at least 30 days... or better yet, give it 60 days. Are you going to get ripped and shredded like the P90-X commercials? Maybe - if you put in the time, effort, and energy to following every aspect of that program. 

More realistically - You're not going to follow the diet exactly. You're not going to be able to do th 50 pull-ups he magically thinks everyone can do. You're not going to push yourself as hard as you should.

Why?  Because you're a normal person wanting to get healthy and not someone wanting to become a professional athlete. I mean - damn - if I got paid to go to the gym instead of sit in my chair at work, I'd be one fit SOB. But the gym is where I go at night - after work, after dinner, after time with the kids... When I have the the time or even the energy to go. 

And even doing that - just putting forth the effort that I can - without turning my life completely over to "fitness" - the change is noticeable at 30 days. I see it in my face, my stomach, and my chest. I feel it when I go up the stairs. I feel it when I play with the kids or do ANYTHING requiring some amount of physical strain on my part. 

And it feels good. 

In 30 more days - it'll feel even better. 

Until next time - Keep going! You're almost there!

Not a movie review... I promise.

This weekend I, along with the rest of the world, saw the movie Black Panther... And it was awesome.

BUT... if you see that movie, it will make you want to go to the gym.

Everyone in that movie is fit, toned, and in shape. Especially Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa and Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger...

Clearly SOMEONE has been at the gym... 

It so happens that Michael B Jordan is no stranger to being in shape and hitting the gym. He hit the gym and bulked up for Creed and for Black Panther he once again hit the gym and got cut.

Of course - it's much easier to do these things with a personal trainer... and I'm assuming getting paid to look good helps a great deal.  I'm just envious of him for it.

His trainer has posted his workout plan online - and I have to say it looks good. So I may have to try it out for a month or two... You can see it here - as posted in Maxim

Anyway - that's it. Just a break from my normal posts about food and Macros.


Until next time - Eat more protein!

Adventures in Food Tracking!

Good morning faithful readers! Just kidding - nobody reads this blog....

So - Ask yourself: "what does it mean to be healthy?"

• Flat stomach?
• 6 pack abs?
• Muscles rippling beneath your clothes?

Maybe. Not necessarily. 

For some, it could be as simple as:

• Not being out of breath on the stairs
• Losing 5 lbs
• Slimming down that 2nd chin

For me - it's more of the second group of answers. But I've found that it is also profoundly more than that. In many different categories. I'm slimming down, I have more energy, I am in a better mood, I eat smaller portions, I go to the bathroom regularly, and my stomach isn't always giving me problems like it used to... It's pretty cool.  (Plus - I've caught my wife actually checking me out... WIN!!!)

1 month ago I made my first entry in "MyFitnessPal" - I say "first" because I've done this before but always stalled out around day 14 or so... I am now on a 32 day streak of entering absolutely every food I've eaten - good, bad, or otherwise. When I finished my first week and hit that "Complete Diary" button it said "if you do this every day, you'll weigh 226 lbs in 5 weeks."

Well, I weighed-in this morning and I am 226.5 lbs - and, well, I had a lot of sweets and carbs this week with Fat Tuesday and my local bakery's "Cherry Thing-A-Lings" (They're amazing)

So - I'm pretty freaking excited. 

This week MyFitnessPal says "if you do this every day, you'll weigh 221 lbs in 5 weeks." - And that's AWESOME. 

So - keep following and reading... and in 5 weeks - see if I've kept sticking to my guns.

Until next time! - Stay happy, stay healthy. 

Getting fat on Fat Tuesday

Ah... Mardi Gras... or "Fat Tuesday" in the vernacular... is the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of the Catholic Lenten Season of fasting and something... Sorry, I'm not Catholic so I don't know what all goes on other than a lot of commercials for fish and a lot of people swearing off of sweets and or Facebook until Easter.

Anyway.... I DO love traditions, though. And I'm a sucker for sugary cakes. So, I bring in a King Cake every year on Fat Tuesday and share... and I ate a piece and it WAS AMAZING.  It was, in one bite, more sugar than I've consumed in a month. Which means I've totally blown my carb intake for the day week... but it was good - And totally worth it.

But that's the point of my post today - It is totally acceptable to occasionally indulge in your sweet tooth.

Let me say that again. Slower. And with emphasis on the proper words:

It is totally acceptable to occasionally indulge in your sweet tooth.

This means that, from time to time, you can eat that piece of cake or chocolate and not freak out about it. As long as it is A: OCCASIONALLY and B: In moderation. It does not mean "Oh man, what a fun workout - I'm going to eat this whole cake today because I earned it." or "I've lost 1 lb this month - I've earned a 3,000 calorie Frappaccino every day this week."  It DOES mean that once every 3 weeks or so - I'll eat something that totally blows my calorie and carb count out for a day... and that's it. I'll enjoy it, it's good, and then it's gone. Allow me to think back to that post where I talk about it NOT being a diet and being a decision to live a better/healthier life... That's it! You can be healthy and still eat sugar from time to time.

Unless you're allergic to sugar - and that would just be awful.



So - there ya go, kids!  Enjoy your Fat Tuesday... but remember that it's one day - and next week you're back to FIT Tuesday

Cardio! It's what's for dinner!

Holy... cow.

After tonight's weight-lifting session we decided to add a small, 10 minute, cardio session to our workout.

Well... 4 minutes of Tabata Box-Jump - Jump up on the box, then down for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds, then repeat for 4 minutes... and I was about dead. Not really - but I could feel the years of overeating and smoking. After that, we did Tabata Wall-Ball - weighted medicine ball tossed up about 10' on the wall, catch it when it comes down and go into a squat, then explode out of the squat and throw the ball back up... we did that for 20 on/20 off... 

I love doing cardio... even though I hate it. 

Cardio and I are somewhere in this range...

Ah well - it'll help, right?

I plan on doing more cardio... not enough to kill my muscles, but enough to help trim some of the fat. I'm really starting to see a difference in my body... my stomach doesn't stick out as far, some of my shirts are fitting better, and I feel better. Well - I feel better as long as I'm not dying of the plague that everyone keeps passing back and forth this winter.

So - There ya go, dear internet, fun time with sweat and weight loss.

Until next time - be better!

Getting off of you A** and doing something...

Yesterday was Sunday - which is the first night of my weekly gym trips, and I... didn't want to go. True story.

I spent all afternoon on Sunday playing with my kids on the floor building Lego castles, space ships, and boats... and I was having fun. Then I spent some quality time with my wife - and I, to put it simply, just lacked the motivation to leave all of that and go to the gym. I was too comfortable. And that, like any excuse, isn't a good one.

But - my wife is an excellent supporter in this endeavor of mine and urged me on towards the door and the awesome pain of Chest Day awaiting me at the YMCA.  I also have a good workout partner who keeps me accountable - even on dreaded LEG DAY!!!

And the thing is - much like my normal, social anxiety - Once I was there and doing it, I was happy. It's the getting up and going that is my stumbling point.

And that's the problem with a lot of things in life - finding the deep down, innate desire to get up, out of our comfort-zone or routine and try new things or do something difficult. It's absolutely easier to stay home, take "fat-burners", eat pizza and dream about being healthy than it is to get up, get dressed, go to the gym when it's 17 degrees out, and work hard for 90 minutes with various heavy objects.

Don't get discouraged. I know many people are just like me - impatient. Didn't see any results in 12 days? Might as well stop going to the gym!  - That's not how this works. That's not how ANY of this works. It takes 3 weeks before you might even feel a change in any aspect of your personal health or behavior, let along see one. It takes 21 days (I'm told) to form a habit. And to make a habit you need a routine. And that's why Sunday sucks so much for me. Friday and Saturday are rest days and Sunday comes and I am still resting. But that'll change - and having good reminders from family and friends helps - as does the reward of how good I feel after the gym. Well, except on the days when I go and I'm really dehydrated and I cramp up really bad in my sleep - but that's more of a personal problem LOL.

SO - go out there, form a routine, make a habit - AND BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF!!!!  Even if it takes 6 months, 6 years, 20 years, or 40 years!

Weight Loss and other factors...

Getting healthy - changing your lifestyle for the better - isn't just about losing weight. Anyone can lose weight if they just starve themselves or burn more calories than you take in... and that's not healthy or a good change for you to go through. In many of those cases, the lost weight comes back with a vengeance shortly thereafter. It's good for a short-fix, but not long-term.

I was one of those people concerned only with the scale and what it said for a long time. I just want to lose weight I just want to lose weight I just want to lose weight... 

But it's not about weight. It is about body make-up and composition. What I really wanted was to lose fat, build some muscle, and learn how to treat my body better. Don't get me wrong - if they came out with a pill tomorrow that would allow me to lose all of this weight in a week - I'd really consider it. I'm lazy. 

Fat loss is better than weight loss. 

So - 3 weeks ago, or so, on January 14th I decided to take some measurements along with my weigh-in and track that as well. 

My first measurements looked like this:

Neck: 17.25"

Hips: 43.5"

Waist: 44.5"

Not exactly the picture of fit - even though I was "losing weight" I wasn't losing size. In all reality I was probably losing muscle do to an insufficient diet. Muscle, as you might know, weighs MORE than fat... 

Here we see 5 lbs of fat next to 5 lbs of muscle... note the MASS of each....

For the past 3 weeks - I've been really working on eating the right foods - high in protein, low in carbs, healthy fats that my body can process... And my weight-loss has slowed.  I felt I should be down to 225 by now easily. But that's not the case - I'm still hanging around 228/230... but...

BUT...

I measured again today... 3 weeks to the day.

Neck: 16.5" (down .75")

Hips: 40.75" (down 2.75")

Waist: 42.5" (down 2")

And that's pretty damn great!!

So - I am pleased... and I am going to go another 3 weeks and re-measure. Maybe I'll be down another couple of inches and another couple of lbs... Who knows. 

Wish me luck, kids!