Wednesday Cat Blogging

Bleah!

I'll catch up tomorrow.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Dream On

So....today I begin a fitness challenge as a final push to get where I want to be, physically, by the time my birthday rolls around.  That meant taking the dreaded "before" photos....which I will be kind to everybody and not post them here today.  Instead, I will post my projected "after" photos.....maybe...well....the hair will be about the same color.

Another Notch

It might not seem to some that I'm making much progress in losing weight.  Certainly nothing dramatic like you see promised in so many diet and fitness programs.  Yet, progress is there.  My pants are literally falling off....as in dropping to my ankles unless I constantly hitch them up.  I haven't had much time to shop for new britches lately but the danger of exposing myself has caused me to take a nail to my belt and add another notch.  BTW, my forefinger is on top of the second notch....the one I buckled when I first bought this belt on my 55th birthday last year.

It's Friday! Be Weird.

So...What About It?

As noted previously, I had received a couple of sample packets of a nutrition shake called Full Strength.  It's a meal replacement designed for men, specifically for mid-aged men.  I was impressed with the ingredients and the nutritional value of the stuff but...man, oh man....it's not cheap.  It also isn't for sale in stores so I was a bit leery about shelling out a buncha money without even knowing what it tastes like.  Most instant shakes that I've tried have an extremely funky taste to them.  Oh...the advertisements all claim how delicious they are but they all seem to smell and taste like sweaty socks and dirt.  At around $5 a packet, I didn't want to be stuck with a box of nutrition drinks that I would never use.

Shawn Phillips, the guy that sells this stuff, solved my dilemma by offering a couple of free samples.  You can go to the Full Strength website and get one yourself.  This was great.  Now I could find out how it tastes and also see how it made me feel after drinking it as a meal.

I made the first packet for a breakfast.  Blended easily.  Nice consistency.  Good smell.  Great taste!  I'm not kidding, this is the first nutrition shake that I've ever had that actually tasted good.  Not just tolerable...but yummy good.  It's very satisfying, giving a feeling of being full without feeling bloated.  I felt pretty good for the entire morning so I'm thinking that my body had some quality fuel that it liked.

My next packet was at work.  This is what I'm primarily looking for in a meal replacement.  My schedule is usually extremely hectic and my lunch choices are almost always either gobble down fast junk food at my desk or skip lunch entirely...which invariably leads to snacking on chips and candy during the afternoon.  I needed something that was fast and easy which would also make me feel like I actually had a meal so that I could get through the next few hours without wanting to munch on something.  The Full Strength fit the bill pretty well.  I was able to mix it easily in a shaker bottle and down the whole thing in a few minutes.  I had absolutely no hunger for the rest of the workday and felt pretty good...no sluggishness or bloated out feeling.

So...I think I found something that will help me tremendously in managing my diet.  It does cost more than stuff you could pick up at a store, but the quality is definitely reflected in that price.  Besides, I can easily spend more on a bag of slop from a fast food joint.  I may as well put the good stuff in my body.  I'm worth it.

Full Strength Taste Test Part 2

Full Strength Test Taste

It's Friday! Be Weird.

Yes...I'm a Dinosaur

This is probably the attitude most have toward blogging.  Lots of web pages out there trying to sell you something but not many of the personal journal types these days.  I get the same attitude with all things of the internet.  I don't twitter; just never saw the point in it.  I do hang around on Facebook but I don't "live" there like several people I know.  I have Netflix and Hulu because I was tired of paying over a hundred dollars every month for over a hundred channels that I never watched anyway.  My cell phone is not smart; all it does is send and receive calls..no text, no surf, no camera, no 3 or 4G whatever the hell that means.  I have a desktop that meets my needs.  I have a big old laptop for travel.

All this doesn't mean that I'm some kind of Luddite.  I love gadgets and gizmos but I'm also a cheapskate.  I'm very particular about spending.  I think folks who shell out a ton of money every month for their phone service are morons.  I also think that those same folks who spend all day on their smart phones must have very little going on in their daily lives.

Anyway....what does this have to do with the price of rice?  Just that I'm going to keep this blog going whether anybody ever actually reads it or not.  I'll keep pecking away on my grandpa box even when I don't have anything particularly interesting to write about.

Like today.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Inner Strength

It's been a while.  Three months, actually.  Consistent blogging is a great deal like exercise or diet....easy to let it get away from you and, the longer it's away, the harder to go back.

But I'm back.  I have spent the last few months concentrating on getting my weight down and under control.  I've managed to keep it steady at just under 195 lbs.  Not ideal and not my goal; but this is a long way from 260 lbs when I started my 50's.  I still have a gut though it doesn't hang over my belt anymore.  Now, my focus is on obtaining strength during the next three months.

Not an easy task.  I'm going to try and tweak out my diet to help, plus increasing the intensity of my exercise.     I still have folks that do all they can to convince me that I'm wasting my time.  Men my age just get fat and lose muscle.  It's biology.  Accept it.

I refuse to accept being fat.  I refuse to accept that I have to feel sluggish and be without energy.  My thoughts are that those who say it isn't possible is that they are right....for them.

So, I'll try to get back that consistency in several areas, including writing here about the struggles, the triumphs, the setbacks, complaints, praises, off the wall stuff, and cat photos.  Let's see what happens at the end of this year of 55.

One Thing After Another

Sometimes, life just doesn't always go according to plan.  I finally found the time to take a long postponed vacation and start off with getting sick.  Then, a superduper winter snowstorm comes in to bury me and derail plans of visiting family.

and....not much in the way of any exercise at all....stuck in the house...bored...and when I'm bored...I eat

Not one to give up though.  Just whip up some lemonade.  Sugar free of course.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Day 9

Great product.  A packet of vanilla flavored, toss in a few frozen strawberries, add water, blend the hell out of it for about thirty seconds....and you get a great tasting, super thick, shake.  No fat.  Lots of fiber and protein.  Loaded with vitamins.  Fills me up and gives me good energy.  I replace one or two meals everyday with this stuff.

Aim High

We all face challenges and we all face a choice....take it on or quit.  The thing about trying to tackle a challenge though is that you might possibly fail.  I think that's what keeps most from trying.  I mean, failing sucks, no doubt about that.  I think most people believe that it feels better to think of themselves as a quitter than a failure.  We can make excuses for quitting.  Failure is pretty much cut and dried.

It's an illusion though.  Quitting causes resentment and regret.  Whereas trying to accomplish something has the likelihood of at least obtaining partial goals, not trying at all gets you nothing.

Sounds like a safe bet to me.  Either stand and complain about obstacles in your life, or aim high and try to overcome them.  What have you got to lose?

Day 2

One of my biggest self imposed obstacles has been "doing it later". This is especially so with exercise.  It's always "I don't have time this morning" or "I feel kinda lousy" or "I have to prepare for a big meeting"....always something. Then I tell myself that I'll do it later, perhaps during lunch, maybe when I get home in the evening.

Of course I never get to it because the excuses I used in the morning sound just as good at the end of the day. So I miss a day. Then another. And another...well...you know. This morning I pushed aside the excuses and went out for a run (actually a fast walk, but that's the best I can do right now). It was cold. It was dark. It hurt.

 But feels so good.

Next 12 Weeks

I'm needing to get serious about this fitness stuff.  I have a difficult time staying focused by myself...I need a bit of a program to keep on track.  I've decided to do the 2013 Transformation Challenge for the next three months and see what happens.  I'm going to try my best to follow it to the letter every day.  Part of that is "homework" to be completed every week.  These are exercises to address the mental aspects of fitness...and believe me...they are sometimes harder than the weight lifting.  I'll post those and my responses here as I go along the next few weeks.

Heart and Soul

Having looked inward to do some soul-searching, three heartfelt reasons for making the decision to transform my health and life are:

1: I'm tired of being fat, tired of feeling bad, tired of being inactive...tired of being tired.
2: I see friends my age develop diabetes and heart disease.  I want to avoid these killers if it is possible.
3: I want to set an example to others around me.  I want to be known as somebody who can accomplish personal goals and inspire others to achieve theirs.

Emotions

In recent days and weeks, the three most predominant inner feelings I have been experiencing are:

1: Dread that I will have a heart attack.
2. Ashamed of my condition.
3. Frustrated and scared that I can't do it.

Mindset

Three patterns of thinking or beliefs which may have limited my ability to change in the past are:

1: I'm too busy.
2: I'm too old.
3: I've already damaged my body beyond repair.

Body

Three objectively verifiable statements which reflect my physical condition right now are:

1: My weight this morning is 197.4 pounds.
2: My body fat is 34%
3: I've taken my before photos....bleah.  Looking at them clearly shows the work that needs to be done.

Butter vs Margarine

I'm of the belief that butter (or really, any dairy product) is not bad for you.  Overindulgence is...overdoing it on any food is bad for your body.  Eat a sack of bananas in one sitting and see how you feel.  Sure butter is full of fat, it is fat, but one of the goals I have is getting fit and healthy while still being able to enjoy food.  There are just some things I eat that scream for butter.  Taters, broccoli, carrots, peas, asparagus, etc., etc., etc.  Gotta have butter.

One of the things that a lot of folks do in trying to lose weight is to use margarine, especially the so-called heart healthy stuff because it has olive or canola oils or whatever way it's made to convince you that eating this is like eating health food.  It's bullshit.  Margarine has the same fat content as butter.  Sure, butter has cholesterol but guess what; there is no link of cholesterol to heart disease.  Butter is a natural product used for thousands of years.  Margarine is a manufactured product that is more closely related to plastic than any food item that has ever appeared on the planet.

It's all about moderation.  You are not going to lose any weight if you sit on the couch watching TV and eating a couple of sticks of butter every night.  I do think that it's okay to have a pat on your veggies.  Just like there is no one thing that will magically make a person healthy...there is no one thing that will make a person fat.

Eat what you want....but control what you eat.