Keeping you from your fitness goals are a series of obstacles which pile up like the amount of snow this winter. Thanksgiving and all the big winter holidays are gone. Snow-storms after snow-storm and torrential rainfalls have hit many U.S. states. Frigid temperatures don’t inspire walking to the car much less driving in bad weather to get to the gym. While at home experiencing the winter blues, comfort comes in the form of various carbs. After awhile the comfort food begins to make you uncomfortable with your body when the results are a donut around the waist. As surely as it takes time to shovel your car out of the accumulation, shoveling out of the weight gain mess takes time and can be achieved. Clear the road to weight loss success with small steps.
Make your liquids non caloric whether tea, water or diet soda.
Low-fat Desserts: Yogurt pie, fruit parfait, and smoothies are great options(add your cultural flair with mango, kiwi, lime, etc)
Stock up on Exercise DVD’s. Have a variety to avoid boredom
Wii fit games like boxing
Weight train at home. Make those arms look gorgeous.
Soup is a great comfort food. Avoid high sodium soup and make homemade.
Stock up on snacks such as carrots, celery, jicama, nuts and fruits.
Weight Watchers Strawberry Trifle
Need the taste of cake: Angel food is lighter. Use a light whip cream and strawberries.
Don’t forget 1 hour of snow shoveling can burn off at least 400 calories!
“The sweet spot = when your personal and professional worlds not only intersect, but exist symbiotically.”
This has become my mantra lately, and it’s even scrawled on my Facebook page.
At work recently, I’ve been able to combine my off-the-clock passions for healthy living and social media as I’ve become involved in our work for the American Heart Association.
You might recall a few weeks ago I did a post about American Heart Month.
And if you become a fan of the American Heart Association on Facebook (or follow AHA on Twitter @American_Heart), I’m the “voice” communicating with you, also known as a “community manager.”
Well, tomorrow is National Wear Red Day! And since I know I have a captive audience of (mostly) women here who are likely concerned about their own heart-health (and overall health) I thought I’d use this “reach” for a good cause today.
Too many women die each year because they are unaware that heart disease is their No. 1 killer. So if you’re on Facebook, please make your profile picture red and Speak Up for women’s heart health. You can learn about the cause here. And if you have a blog, would you consider linking to this post, or doing a post about women’s heart health?! Thank you for all your support!
Okay, focus, focus. I did my exercise today and hard. In the process of cleaning a few things up in my room, I found my pedometer. I know you’re supposed to get 10,000 steps in a day, at a bare minimum. Well, smart alecks, I have a desk job and I sit at that desk a lot of the day. Some idiots comment on the fact I’m always at my desk. Well, that’s where the work is and the computer to do the work. Should I wander around aimlessly to add steps on the pedometer and appease some sense….okay, tangent. At any rate, I’m working my way to 5,000 with consistency starting, well, today. But, having ran and walked and gadded about for 45 minutes, I’m at 4500. So hopefully I can find some ways to get more in during the day and more water.
I’ve been thinking about salt intake and how that might be an issue. But, that’s a meal at a time kind of thing and the damn peanuts I bought out of hunger today are another tripwire. Oh, hallo imperfection and wavering lines.
Me? I’m doing okay. I’m trying not to see more than one bird at a time, and not overwhelm myself. Monday is another food day at work with a bowling tournament where the choices are Mexican, Italian, or maybe Subway. I don’t know yet what I’m going to do or how tough I’ll be on myself if I eat poorly. I know what we’ll have and I love it and I wonder if I’ll give in or not. But, the thing is…Wednesday night? Pizza is ordered for our meeting. And I know, logically, nothing is making that go into me. Nothing is making me have to have any interaction with it at all. But my brain is telling me things like now I deserve it. I deserve to fall backwards? I deserve to give up? I don’t know. I do have more control. And I’m not the person that has to revel in food for emotional sustenance. Not in 2010. There are other places to go for that.
Also! Lest I forget. I made a whole vlog and wanted to post it, but no fooling, it was all sped up and didn’t upload right. I am thinking that if/when I work it out, I’ll post a link here. I don’t know how comfortable I am with a fluidity of this identity with a visual one. I know that should all be part of this self-acceptance adventure, but I gotta be a little self-aware, too and not jump in head first. If one area gets a bit poisoned, as things on the internet are bound to do, I don’t want to have to lose the other. Especially not this project. It’s starting to mean something to me, more than just a place to dump all my bullshit for free, but as possibly a documentation of my emerging humanity or something. My emergent self-love. Ah, no. Um. Something. It means something and I’m not just stalling for words, it’s just elusive and I can’t name it yet.
First off, I am quitting work and becoming a professional Powerball player… I can’t imagine that would be so bad and at least at the end of each day, I wouldn’t be pulling out my hair! But… enough about work… let’s get to the good stuff… the test/measurements…
As for the first part of my test… Facebook says it best:
Cliff Rebelo ran 1.56 mi on 2/3/2010 at 6:40 PM with a pace of 9′40″/mi http://nikerunning.nike.com/n/r/en_US/1208129937/2020809252/?sitesrc=fbk_ab_plus
That’s right… I kicked ass on the treadmill. On 12/16, I did 1.3 miles in 15 minutes and that was considered outstanding. I completely blew my numbers out of the water by dong 1.56 in the same amount of time. I am increasing so much on my running and I am getting excited all over again with it… thank GOD because this is what I needed to happen, the excitement. After a glorious improvement in my run, I smacked CJ for making me run at the speeds he made me run at and then we moved on.
The rest of the test consisted of measuring my improvements on this machine that does dips and other crap and all of that improved. Did it improve a lot? I wasn’t impressed with the amount of reps I did this time at 130lbs. I increased the amount that I could do each rep compared to 12/16, but not by a lot. CJ, however, said I should be impressed and considering I had a so-so January, the improvement was more than expected. So… I took the small improvements in stride and moved on to some ab work and plowed through those exercises with one thing in mind… measurements…
How did I do? Considering I had a January straight out of SUPERSIZE ME, I did phenomenal… measurements wise anyway… I wasn’t impressed with the number on the scale but CJ seemed awfully impressed with the numbers taken as he grabbed me there and pulled me here… kinda sounds dirty when you say it that way… but I digress.
Overall, I lost another 7.7mm of crap all around my body and the biggest surprise for me? Going from 35% body fat to 26%… I don’t know body fat and how it works out but I do believe that’s impressive. My weight on the scale? 223lbs… eh. That was a 5lb weight loss from 12/16 which made me sad. I should have lost a lot more than that but Stretch Armstrong told me to focus on the numbers he pulled using his measuring tape and body fat thingie so that is what I am doing. Only thing I can do now is focus on my next test/measurements which will be on 3/3/10, 17 days before my first 5k!
See the information below. On 3/3/10, I need to be at 218lbs or LOWER and I also need to lose at LEAST 3 more millimeters of gunk around my massive body.
Weight: 228lbs to 223bs
Neck: 15.5″ to 15.1″
Shoulders: 47.9″ to 47″
Chest: 43.2″ to 42.5″
Arms at Side: 14.5″ to 14.1″
Arms Flexed: 15″ to 16.3″ (Yeah Buddy)
Waist: 43″ to 41″
Hip: 44.6″ to 43″
Thighs: 20.3″ to 21″ (I’m supposed to have big thighs apparently)
Calves: 15.4″ to 15″ (Still trying to understand this logic)
Triceps: 12mm to 9.8mm
Lat: 9mm to 7.5mm
Illium: 28mm to 24mm
Thigh: 10mm to 10mm (Who knows what that means)
For a total of: 51.3MM = 7.7 MM loss from my DECEMBER 16th MEASUREMENTS and 15.2MM altogether since starting with CJ and taking my first measurements on 11/11/09.
So that’s it. A so-so month led to better results than expected. Thankfully I am excited all over again about all of this and I am ready to get the job done on 3/3/10! My total MM count on that date needs to be 48.1MM or below for a total loss of 3+MM. And what did I learn? DON’T FOCUS ON THE SCALE! I only lost 5lbs BUT look at those numbers. To see my body fat go down 9% is AMAZING and it shows that my hard work has been paying off. So remember folks, get to the gym and pick up those weights because cardio is NOT enough. Get your mind off of the numbers on the evil scale and follow my example. Oh yeah, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… if you are struggling with getting your weight-loss program started, then get yourself a CJ. Having that accountability each week is amazing and if it wasn’t for this accountability, I’d probably still be blogging about not going to the gym! The money I’ve spent on him has been very well spent and it’s the best investment I’ve made in a long, long, long, long time.
I have received many interesting comments over the years about varied exercises. Most very positive and encouraging. I try to think outside the box and take an exercise and break it down so someone who is either morbidly obese or just starting a fitness program can exercise and feel good about themselves.
Recently I obtained a comment from youtube (where I do have a some snippets) that was not that pleasant. It was from an person who when I looked up their information was large with extreme hard cut muscle. Dont these people realize that not everyone is fit with hard cut muscle? Dont they realize that in reality it is a very small percentage that is extremely fit with hard cut muscle? Dont they realize that most people are trying to fit fitness into their daily lives and don’t want to live at the gym?
I truly wish that those people would stop with the negativity and start with some positive encouragement. Are they that insecure about themselves that they can not use a kind word. I have tried for over 20 years to encourage people to change their lifestyle one day at a time.
It was a few weeks ago that there was an article on-line about one of the Biggest Loser contestants putting back on almost all the weight he lost on the show. (He was the winner of season 3) There was some extreme hate emails that were written and very few positive encouraging words to get back on track. I guess for those who never had to battle with weight don’t have a clue. It does take lots of hard work and positive reinforcement to help those stay on track.
As for me I just cut those negative comments so others don’t have to read them. Sometimes I feel like I am back in grade school with the bully’s. As adults all I want to say is grow up. Life is too short for all of your negativity. Not everyone wants to live at the gym staring at themselves in the mirror or every reflective surface flexing their muscles. Being healthy and fit is one thing. Not everyone wants hard cut muscles. Look I have been there and done that with both losing weight and hard cut muscles. At this point in my life I don’t want that hard cut look for myself. I don’t want to spend all those hours at the gym. So when you see me in those snippets trying to encouraging others you will not see hard cut muscle. Yes you may even see some body fat, but I am healthy, energized, strong and HAPPY!!!! So get over yourselves and allow me to continue to encourage others to help themselves to a better quality of life:)
You struggle with your weight so help your kids so they don’t have to. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high. It’s not ok for them to eat whatever they want, whenever they want. We monitor their TV, computers, what they listen to, and who their friends are so it’s ok to monitor what they eat. Our job as parents is to keep them safe and HEALTHY. Start now teaching them now what to eat and how much. Save them from having to learn it the hard way as an adult and keep their growing bodies fueled with nutrition.
Miss me? You know you did, don’t lie. Over the past week, people have thought that I had either died, gained 100lbs or ran off to take part in a Central American stage show. Well, I am happy to say that I have done none of the above. Where have I been then? Good question… After the miserable failure I had experienced over the last few weeks between my illness and my lack of motivation to exercise, I decided that I needed to regroup and take a breather. After my last post on January 25th, I had to step back and figure out what the hell was going on. I had been so motivated and so ready to go for weeks and then suddenly, I was on a one way ticket to FATOPIA, population: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000…
I wasn’t overeating or anything crazy like that, but the last few weeks were just hard in terms of getting excited about the gym again. So on 1/25 and 1/26, I managed to excuse my way out of the gym but on 1/27, I had no choice as I had to face CJ and explain to him that I was a deadbeat for most of January. Instead of and being scolded and called fat, I actually got a more sympathetic and concerned response as he did not want to see me slide back to being the fatty he first met in October. During our rigorous one hour workout, he consistently reminded me why I was there and what I was doing for myself. He then decided that I would get measured this week (as in Wednesday 2/3… eek) and then next week, he was going to see me twice in the same week to make sure I was getting excited about this whole process again. He really did not want me to lose focus and after seeing him… I did get some of my spunk back.
After our lovely hour I remembered the 5K and how far I had come with my strength training and I had to kick myself a few times for wasting what could have been a great month in weight loss. But… I can’t look back. I didn’t gain an enormous amount of weight (maybe a pound or two) and I found last week that I am still pretty strong with both my weights and my running. So after seeing CJ I made sure to make it back to the gym to complete the new circuit twice (Saturday and tonight) and I also made sure to get going with my running. On my last two treadmill runs, I managed to hit 2 miles in just about 20 minutes… if I can keep this up outside on pavement and then add an additional 10 or so minutes, I will have my 5K in a VERY respectable first time try…
I also decided to kick up my weight training a notch by going out and buying an enormous tub of whey protein powder. I bought a canister of Muscle Milk Light and made my first protein packed shake tonight and it actually did not taste bad at all. I made sure to drink it as soon as I got home from the gym to make sure all of that liquid protein got to my muscles and I then followed it up with a light dinner an hour and a half later. I’ve been online finding all of these recipes to make with the powder so that one of these shakes can sometimes serve as a meal replacement as well… found an outstanding recipe where you add bananas, natural peanut butter, some other crap… sounded tasty. In the beginning, I’ll stick to the simple water and milk recipe and only drink them after workouts… I’ll graduate to complicated recipes in a week or two.
So, what did I learn these last few weeks? As fun as this blog is and as much support as I get from it… no one can motivate me but me. Kinda sucks huh? I thought for sure that all of the inquiries regarding my blogging absence would have gotten me to get up and get moving, but it didn’t. Yes, it’s nice to have so many people support me on this journey and wonder if I am OK, etc… but the only one who can fix me is me and I had to fix myself to get back on this road once again. I may have had a scary few weeks, but I am back in this game and that is all that counts! The support does help, but you really need to want this… if you don’t want it, then no one and nothing can help you until you help yourself and get that drive back. Fortunately for me, I got it back and I am just hoping that this time it sticks! Look for the new measurements this week…
“The sweet spot = when your personal and professional worlds not only intersect, but exist symbiotically.”
Consistency. Blink. Blink.