Healthy Tomorrow Starts Today! My Weight Loss Journey
Healthy Tomorrow Starts Today! My Weight Loss Journey
Progress to date has been going very well. I have so far this year lost just shy of 50lbs. To be exact 48.3 lbs as I am writing this. What I like about this number is that is it relates to the 45lb Olympic plates […]
I have been strong since I can remember. I first began to really notice it in elementary school. I remember being able to beat my fellow students in arm wrestling with ease, and having to be careful roughhousing not to send someone flying. This despite […]
So far 2021 has been gong very well in regards to my health. I am currently at -34lbs and I am noticing a dramatic difference. This go around I feel like I am making better progress in regards to every aspect of this process. My meal plans have left me more full, with more energy and less cravings. Just like before my activity level has gone up dramatically. I have gone from walking around the block, to walking blocks, to walking several km and up steep hills. My back has gone from pain, to discomfort to hardly noticing it, to being free of all pain. It has all been going as good as I could have hoped.
The reasons for this could be many and likely a combination of them all. The added resistance training, muscle mass, larger meals, more proteins and healthy fats in my diet. I think with each attempt at this, I have gotten better. As frustrating as it is to redo progress, it seems to be being done better and more efficiently each time I have try.
All this great progress has however given me an ominous thought that has been nagging at me. If I manage to succeed at this, if this is the attempt that works. How then would I prevent myself from falling back into an unhealthy life? I am not sure the answer, but I do have some thoughts on it.
For one I feel this whole process is akin to any other addiction. Drinking, smoking, drugs, all things I do not partake in but have seen around me in my life. I have seen smokers quit over and over, much as I have with my eating habits, only to witness them relapse in much the same way. It often happens like this. They start by smoking at first a single cigarette, then several a day. Then a vehement suggestion that those several a day are a change for the better and will only stay as that. Which they never ever maintain and always go back to smoking as much if not more then they did before. It all feels familiar with my eating, going cold turkey, only to slip more and more. each 10lbs I gained back telling myself it is not so bad. I tell myself I am better then I was. But in the end I eventually end up back to where I started or worse.
I have however witness a smoker who did all that and who smoked for 50 years actually quit, and more importantly, never smoke again. They even find smoking repulsive now. This new view they have is interesting as it means their entire mindset has changed around smoking. They no longer view it as something they are missing out on and instead something they can’t believe they did. In the end they did succeed, after years of failing, and so I figure, it is possible for me as well.
I believe I will need to view this process as an initial step not a solution. If I lose the weight I want, if this actually works it will be the first step in a lifetime of vigilance. It could be I may just not be able to enjoy eating the same as other do. Just as a recovered alcoholic can not enjoy a few beers on the weekend with those for whom it is nothing more than a joy, not a danger.
I once did view food very differently back in my early 20s. I viewed it as fuel, as energy and building blocks to bigger muscles and a functional machine in which I reside. What I find interesting is I always look after my machines with such care, having my truck serviced regularly, even my watch. Why the most important machine in my life my own body I no longer look after in the same way is strange. But I did at one time look after it with the same care and appreciation if not more so. When I think back to that time I really didn’t miss food that much. Now I weigh the idea that I may never eat some of my favourite foods again with how much more rich my life was fit and healthy I don’t know why it wouldn’t be an obvious and clear choice.
Investing in anything has some risk, it is why there is a reward. That includes investing in yourself and for me there is certainly a risk I will fail or even succeed only to lose it all again. But the reward is so great, I can’t not try again and again and make that investment of time and energy. I don’t think on my deathbed whenever that may be I will reflect about the great foods I missed eating in my life. But I will certainly be disappointed to have missed aspects of that life held back by my weight. I will also certainly be fond of a life better lived healthy tomorrow today.
I am just short of two weeks into a new attempt at becoming healthy and losing weight. I have been trying off and on for some time, without much success. But recently I have made some large changes that seem to have kick started some […]
One thing about this blog that I think provides value for myself is that it forces me to think and re-think ideas around my health. This is something I have been doing a lot over the past few months in an attempt to understand my […]
It is not lost on me in any way that my last post was New Years 2020. A lot has happened since that post, some good, some bad, and some just the craziness that was 2020.
I have been debating starting this blog again. Several times I have considered getting rid of it. But something kept me from deleting it. And so today exactly a year from my last post and with 2020 now in the rear view mirror, I thought it appropriate to open a post and start writing again. But where to begin.
2020 was like for a lot of people, a mess for me, but aside from everything 2020 related it was also a bad year for my health and my weight. Nothing about that year I am using as an excuse, but it might be worth ripping of the band aid and looking at the issue head on. Slipping back into unhealthy habits and weight gain has been crushing. As wonderful as it was to gain more mobility, and as freeing and liberating as that all that work was. It was truly soul crushing to have it slip away under my own mismanagement of myself.
Trying to dissect what went wrong is so involved that I am not sure how to even put it into writing. I suppose I should start with small slices of where I am. And perhaps, not try to cram it all into one post. I am not sure if people read, or still read this blog, but as stated this is for me more than anything, and above all I want to be honest about the successes and failures. So I will start small, and add more posts later.
My Current Situation
So without beating around the bush the reality is my weight is back to where I begin and then some. My activity is still improved, I do resistance training including pushups, and being able to do those pushups is still a marked improvement to what I could do before. But with my weight high again, I do feel the ramifications of its stresses on my body. It has been a struggle to stay motivated to say the least.
While my strength training is going well, maybe even very well. My mobility is not so great. I struggle to walk even a single km now. It has little to do with me being out of breath and everything to do with my back pain which has returned. Although not at the level it once was. That leads me to be somewhat confused as why I am better condition then when I first began this blog even with the weight gain. It could be due to the constant strength training.
I still also continue to drink my smoothies for breakfast and lunch. I really enjoy them, and as with my resistance training I think they do help improve my health no matter my weight. The issue with the weight gain for sure is overeating in the evenings. This is my primary concern to address in the new year.
I also bought a scale that reads visceral fat levels that is internal fat in the abdominal cavity. I might go into greater depth on this in a later blog, but it has proved interesting. I do know these scales are generally not accurate, but I figure it could show changes to other levels besides my weight and those changes themselves could be noteworthy. On using the scale it shows high muscle mass, high fat and high visceral fat. All not surprising. However after working to try to lose weight this past fall I noticed a drop in visceral fat at precisely the time my back felt better. This seems to align with my suspicion of the cause of back pain. But that might be an entire blog post in itself.
Going forward
As this blog is designed for my personal improvement as well as a window for those in their own struggles some of my future posts will focus on my failures as well as my successes. I am now 10 months away from turning 40. I want to regain my life again and feel healthy. It can’t start tomorrow, it needs to start today.
So instead of deleting this blog, I will continue to write, even for just myself. Instead of stagnating in failure I will push forward. I will either succeed or I wont, so bye bye 2020 and let give this another try.
Happy New Year! Ok maybe that is a little late now, but anytime in January still counts I think. This past year has been so full of ups and downs. I am really looking forward to a fresh start. Using New Year as a Launch […]
This time of year is tough for me to stay motivated, here are five things I do to help stay on track. Start the Day as Healthy as Possible Starting my day with a healthy smoothie and exercise really helps keep up the enthusiasm. When […]
I take a lot of pride and joy in my truck. Some people think it is a bit overboard but pride of ownership is something I have always had. It was a big deal for me to be able to buy a new vehicle. With my truck now at 6 years old, comments from people asking if it was just bought brings me satisfaction. It is also a sense of peace for me to enter my truck and have a clean orderly space. In short I take care of my assets, my truck is no exception. This means regular maintenance, along with washing and cleaning regularly. Twice a year I like to do two big washes where I like to detail my truck meticulously inside and out. This is in the spring and fall, and my fall cleaning came yesterday.
Why am I bringing this up in a health and weight loss blog? It is not so much in the detail of my vehicle which I am sure a reader has limited interest. Nor the irony of my pride in taking care of assets in all but the most valuable, my own body. Which maybe be a good blog for another day. Instead it is to illustrate the process of doing something important to me which has always been impeded by my current weight situation. That and the improvements that I have experienced this recent wash and clean.
Washing a truck to a healthy fit person is probably nothing more than a chore. But for me it was something that not only left me with a sense of satisfaction and pride, but also unfortunately a lot of physical pain. Washing a vehicle involves standing in awkward positions for extended periods of time, bending down to vacuum and use micro fiber cloths. I should mention these are not average 20 min car washes I am doing. I normally spend hours of an afternoon on these cleanings which would more be described as detailing than washing. With the extent of the process it has always been done with me needing frequent breaks for intense back pain. As well as feeling exhausted from the process of forcing myself though movements that trigger these intense back spasms.
This however is the first time I have not just enjoyed the outcome of cleaning my truck, but even the process itself. It actually felt good to be moving non stop for hours being productive and working towards something I would enjoy the fruits of. I took no breaks until it was done, and after finishing, I actually had the energy to wash and clean another vehicle. I normally would have been a mess by the end of the process for just my truck. This time I felt good like I had burned a few calories and on top of everything, cleaned my truck better than I think I have ever in the past.
So the reason I bring up washing my truck is more to illustrate that something important to me now is done better then ever before. Not only that but instead of being painful it was actually enjoyable. This is exactly my goal of improving many aspects of my life through healthy eating and more activity. These things may be obvious after the fact but not always before so. It has created a healthy tomorrow that is now today.
What would getting a large sum of money mean to a lot of us. I mean a substantial amount. Enough to buy the house you want, have side income of investments. Maybe quit your job and travel. It is enough of a dream for many […]
