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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Making adjustments with the diet day 5
This is day five of my 30 day trial of the Take Shape for Life diet. This diet provides you with 5 nutritious meals and you are allowed one lean and green meal one time per day. I have not followed the plan 100% however I am seeing results.
- I feel so much better
- post lunch comas are all but gone
- flexibility is slowly getting better
- joint pain in my left knee is there but much more bearable
- my clothes seem to fit better
- I have watched my blood pressure go down slowly
All of this has been motivational for me however the biggest motivating factor happened Thursday night when one of my computer customers who had not seen me 8 weeks or longer complimented me on my weight loss. The first thing he said was " you are losing weight, good job". I was like, you can notice? He said,"absolutely you are doing something right, keep it up." Now talk about some motivation folks, that is really motivating. Someone at work also mentioned to me today that she could tell that I was losing weight. Wooohoooo now that is wonderful.
Even though I have not followed the plan 100% I have made some tough decisions which are leading to some big adjustments in my diet. The first thing I am doing is drinking much more water than normal. I am supposed to drink 64 oz of water per day and thus far I have been getting around 48 oz on most days. In five days I think I hit the 64 oz mark once so I need to improve on that. I am using Crystal Light to give me some taste to make it a little easier to consume it. I am also using Dasani flavored water and Poweraid flavored water.
The five delicious meals that I received in the variety pack turned out to be mere snacks to me. I understand that according to the "plan" the five meals are actually THE meals I am allowed to have. My brain is having to adjust to the fact that I really do not have to eat as much as I used to. I have also noticed that if I eat the bars and drink plenty of water that I am really not hungry. When I am not hungry it makes it easier to not eat food that I should not eat. I have also discovered that the only thing in the variety pack that I can tolerate or the snack bars. Thus far the other stuff like the chicken and noodle soup or the shakes are just gross. I even tried the chocolate pudding and it did not taste very good. I know that I need to get better at sticking with the plan as closely as I can. The closer that I stick to the plan the more weight I will lose and the faster it will come off.
This week the adjustments I made was to not eat any of the following.
- ice cream from McDonalds
- ice cream from a grocery store
- cheeseburgers from anywhere
- prime rib wrap from King Street Grille
- sausage biscuit with egg and cheese from McDonalds
- sweet tea
- bread of any sort
- ham and cheese sandwiches
- ham egg and cheese sandwiches
- french fries and fried shrimp (used to eat every Friday for lunch)
- fried foods
Now, I know, some of you might be saying big deal. You should not be eating that garbage anyway. I would say to you that is correct, I should not have been eating that food and thanks to eating it over the last 15 years it has led to where I am now. For me to chose not to eat this type of food is a big adjust ment for me. I am HAPPY that I have been able to make the right choices this week even if I did not follow the plan 100%. So, with that said I need to try and do better this new week. I think that things are going to get easier for me as time goes on. The first two to three days were pretty rough as I was getting over the shock value of what a meal is on the plan vs my expectation of a real meal.
Several of you have been very supportive of me in prayer and in verbal encouragement. I have to say that I could not do this without the prayers and your encouragement. My food nazi/life coach friend has been a proverbial pain in my back side but I do appreciate her motivational talks and reminders to drink that water even if I was a bit snarky about it. You know who your friends are when they stick by you both in good times and bad times.
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Me thinks I need the chimney cleaned out. Cough
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Medifast meals
One of the most difficult things about a diet is the self discipline involved in making it a success. Yesterday was day one on the 5 and 1 Medifast program and I have to say that I was not that successful. I did good up until about 9 pm last night when I gave in and had a portion of chicken pot pie that my wife had made for the rest of the family. I also had a bowl of honey nut cheerios around 11 pm. The good news is that I did not gorge myself even though I was pretty hungry when I got home. I understand that a lot of people have lost a lot of weight on this program and that in and of itself is testimonial itself to the success you can have. The problem that I am struggling with is that I am going to have to be willing to starve myself in order to do it. I understand that the "plan" calls for 5 meals during the day every three hours and then a lean and green meal at the end of the day or whenever you would like to eat it. The problem I am having with this plan is two fold. Problem one is the meal is barely a snack. The portions are VERY tiny and they leave you with the desire to have three times the amount of the suggested serving. The second problem with the plan is that the meals suck. If you listen to the marketing hype about the program you are left with the belief that you are going to enjoy the tasty meals every day and not even notice that you are eating prepackaged food that comes in little silver pouches. I think that I have missed out on the brainwashing session where they were supposed to convince me of this. This is day two and I am going to go forward and do the best I can. Today I am going to try the chicken and rice soup for lunch and hopefully it will be better than the chicken noodle soup yesterday. All in all I think that this plan will help me to get away from fried foods and sweets and breads. Even if I do not follow the plan 100% I think that it is going to help me begin to moderate what I eat and how much and hopefully that in and of itself will help me to start lose weight.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
This is the day the Lord has made rejoice and be glad in it
Good morning Posterous friends. :) I have some new subscribers to my Posterous blog and for that I am thankful. My hope is that the thoughts that I share on my blog will bless you and encourage you in some small way. I sometimes wonder why anyone would subscribe to my blogs. In the blogosphere I am one of many voices that are out there and I always figure that there are folks out there that are much more entertaining or informative than me. The important thing is that I do blog and you like to read it. That fact alone helps me to keep writing I suppose.
I noticed this morning that I could add a theme to my blog and do some advanced customization. I hope you like the new look and feel of my Posterous blog. I am not familiar enough with CSS to do any advanced customizations so I will just stick with simple. I think that simple is better sometime. The nice thing about Posterous is that your blog is not all gummed up with advertisements from who knows where trying to sell you some thing or service that you have no need for or the money to spend on.
I am sitting here in my recliner drinking my first cup of coffee and watching Willie chew on his bone. Willie is our new 9 month old Lab puppy who is so full of energy. Willie thinks that the cats and Frodo are his wind up toys. Frodo who is our miniature weiner dog gives it all he has and plays with Willie who towers over him like a giant. Angel who is our 9 year old female lab is not that impressed with Willie and she is not shy about letting him know about it either. I think that in time everyone will get used to one another and be just fine.
My last three days off from work have been nice and I have needed the time off for a rest. I did not do anything extraordinary but I did enjoy hanging out with Katy and running errands and such. I am sure that Katy will be happy when I go back to work on Monday so she can get back to her normal routine. Katy is more of a home body than I am and when I am around the house I like to go do things. You could call me Mr Spontaneous while Katy likes to plan things out and know what she is going to be doing at least one day in advance. What is the fun in that?
Take Shape for Life starts tomorrow and I have mixed emotions about it. The good thing is that I will try to stick with the program because I do want to lose weight. I really need to get the 100 lb gorilla off of my back. I think that is a good word picture for me to think about when I think about losing weight. That gorilla has been on my back for way too long and has been causing more problems than he is worth. I am not sure if it is a male gorilla or a female gorilla at this point but it probably does not matter. What matters is I am tired of carrying this thing around with me everywhere I go. Instead of being fearful about change I will try to have a positive mental attitude and realize that change has to happen for me to get rid of the gorilla. If I can stick with this the changes will be lowered blood pressure and not having to take BP meds every day. Increased mobility and flexibility will be back in my life. I will have more energy to play with my kids and Willie. Hopefully I will be extending my longevity here on this earth.
Katy and I went to N Charleston last night to attend an awards ceremony for one of my friends son who was recieving the Boy Scounts Acheivement award. My friend introduced me to her husband for the first time and we had a good time chatting. Brian and I have several things in common. One of those things we have in common is the need to lose weight. I told Brian that as time marches on I am getting older. I told Brian that I had noticed that I have not ever seen any older people who were obese. If you ask me that is a wake up call for someone like me who is knocking on the door of 50. It is only going to get harder and harder to do what needs to be done. Brian told me that he can lose weight when he puts his mind to it and has done so on several occasions. He also told me that he will be very interested in hearing about my progress. My hope and dream is that I can lose weight and keep it off. I also hope that my doing so can encourage others just like me who need to do the same. The motivation is to be healthier and to feel better physically and emotionally.
Now it is time for me to get off my rear end and get ready for my trip over to Grace Fellowship Church in Duck Ditch. I know it is silly that I can not seem to disassociate myself with Grace Fellowship but after 9 years of going there I have grown fond of the people there. There is a bond there that will not just go away. We may not be able to make it over there every single Sunday but I want to continue to go there as often as I can. I hope you have a beautiful and peaceful stress free day.
God bless
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