Free Day

I have to admit, the Free Day idea is awesome. I haven't gone crazy either. Slept in, ate a chicken bacon and swiss sandwich from Arby's, had a Barq's Slurpee, a low-calorie Gatorade, and some air baked rice and corn crips with guacamole. For dinner, I'm going to eat half a Tofu Pad Thai from Pei-Wei. I get to eat some food I really love, but I haven't gone overboard either. It's a good way to end the weekend before dealing with a case of the Mondays.

I have to get up earlier than normal tomorrow since there are early meetings every Monday morning. Starting off week two may be a little more difficult than week one. I am staying committed, though. Just taking it one day at a time.

Finishing Strong...

I finally had an opportunity to sleep in and it was amazing. I woke up feeling refreshed with no rush to go to work (yay Saturday!) so I spent my morning eating a plate of fruit and relaxing before my workout. It was the longest workout of the week, but I knew my Saturday was just on the other side of finishing.

I took a little time to run by Wal-Mart and pick up some more groceries and just enjoyed the time off this weekend. Tomorrow is my "free day" (aka: eat whatever I want, just regulate my portions) so I am trying to figure out how to get the greatest ROI whenever meal times roll around. Exercise/Diet programs like Body for Life suggest having a day like this to shock your body once a week, in an effort to keep your metabolism dynamic and burning calories. Plus, it really gives you that much more determination to stick with smart eating the rest of the week. This may not work for everyone, but I have seen success in the past and I know it has greatly helped with my will to press through so far.

I noticed some fatigue in the past couple days and think I found the culprit. Long story short: make sure to eat a proper amount of calories each day, even if you are cutting out a lot of fat and carbohydrates. It is good to cut back and take the necessary steps to burn more than you eat each day when weight loss is your goal, but it must not be at such a cost that you are malnurishing your body. Multivitamins are a great way to supplement vitamin loss when you cut back on food consumption, but never starve yourself. It could lead to some difficult medical problems since it is such a strain on the body.

I am enjoying watching the Rangers play. Last night coming back from 2-8 to 9-8 against Boston was absolutely amazing. Nelson Cruz hit a one-pitch homer to start the bottom of the 10th and it was time to call it a night.

I have lost almost 7 lbs this week. That's really a little more than a healthy goal should be, but I know I greatly increased my normal amount of physical activity this week and lost a substantial amount of water weight. If I continue to exercise regularly and eat healthy, I should move to a healthier 2-3 lbs/wk weight loss shortly. I cannot wait to break the 200 lb barrier. It has been 6 years since I have seen that weight. More motivation.

One Day at a Time

Last night was a difficult night to fall asleep. I watched the Cowboys pre-season game against the Raiders, which should have been enough to put me to sleep, but I still found myself struggling. The worst part about insomnia is dreading getting up the next morning. The more time that passed, the less time I allowed myself to sleep unless I skipped my morning workout...

To make it worse, Pure Cardio was on the calendar for today and it is another workout that feels exactly as it sounds. Luckily, it's Friday and I was able to convince myself that tomorrow holds my opportunity to sleep-in for a little bit. So I ate some fruit, strapped on the heart-rate monitor, fixed a glass of water, and prepared to be challenged. As soon as I laced up my shoes and stood up, I felt excruciating pain in my right ankle. I have injured that ankle before, but it was a posterior injury and this pain was definitely coming from the anterior part of my ankle.

I was extremely depressed by the situation because it took so much energy to get up and get ready. At that point, I found myself sitting in my chair pissed off because I knew I couldn't go back to sleep and I couldn't do my workout. I started slowly rolling my ankle around to see if I could figure out where the pain was specifically located, since I could hardly stand to put weight on it at that point. Somehow, that motion slowly loosened up my ankle enough so I could stand on it.

I had new energy. I quickly determined to start the workout and prepared myself to let off if I felt any of the pain return. The farther I made my way into the Pure Cardio dvd, the better my ankle felt. By the time I finished the exercises I didn't even remember my ankle hurt in the first place. I felt extremely blessed knowing how quickly I could have fallen out of the whole exercise cycle had I not been able to workout this morning. Everyone should know that messing up a diet or workout is never a reason to quit. It's just like tripping on the sidewalk: you stumble, get up, and move on. For me, this has not translated to diet or exercise in the past, though. I have a tendency to excuse myself slowly out of any routine the minute something goes wrong. But not this time.

Today was incredibly encouraging because of the difference I noticed in my own attitude. I didn't mope around today; I was energized. I had a few stumbling blocks and was able to overcome them all to finish the morning strong. Bring on the weekend!

Perseverance

The Ranger game was a bit deflating last night. What started out as a 6-1 lead for Cliff Lee turned into a 7-6 loss late in the game for Neftali Feliz. It was four hours of sweaty baseball, staying in the 95-104 degree range for the entire game. However, I had a blast with my clients and really enjoyed the environment of a game that had future playoff match-up potential, as well as onlooker President George W. Bush.

In spite of the outcome, I was determined to get up and work out this morning. After dehydrating my body through four hours of baseball and getting to bed later than normal, it was very difficult to roll out this morning. I finally hopped out of bed after poking the snooze button a couple of times and was relieved to find that it was Cardio Recovery day on the Insanity workout. This workout is just as it sounds. Minimal cardio work, zero plyometrics, but plenty of stretching/yoga to give the body a day to recoup from yesterday's activity.

It was a nice transition to the second half of the week. I bought some Myoplex (the carb-control formula since I'm shooting for some major weight-loss around the belt) as a meal replacement after workouts. It's full of protein and very few carbohydrates to help rebuild the muscles and not add to the fat.

My goal seems so far away right now, but seeing the scale drop to a number I literally haven't seen in years was absolutely encouraging. Especially considering this is Day 4 out of 63. I can't wait to see the results, but right now it's just time to persevere.

Continuity

This morning was a little more difficult to roll out of bed. It was one of those mornings where the sun hadn't quite come up yet and the temperature in the room felt like I was relaxing to a cool breeze coming off the coast. I was wrapped up perfectly in the blankets and 30 more minutes of sleep seemed like the most innocent decision.

But... I rolled out of bed and made myself eat a clementine to give myself a little energy for the morning workout. It was well worth it, as I was able to finish my workout this morning without feeling like I was recovering from a hang-over. I was probably dehydrated yesterday morning when I opted to go full-blast on an empty stomach. Note to self: hydrate + carbohydrate = sustainable workout.

I made sure to stop whenever I felt like I was overexerting myself and take three deep breaths to pump some oxygen into my body. Then it was right back to work. I feel refreshed and not as apprehensive about getting out of bed tomorrow morning, especially considering this could be a late night after the Ranger game. If that's my most difficult hurdle this week, I feel like this week will be one for conquering.

Ranger Energy

I feel like eating a snack before bed would be delicious, but I'm going to stick this one out. I don't feel like I'm starving, so that would probably be the best time to skip a snack. The Rangers just beat the Yankees in the 10th inning (David Murphy) and I'm going to the game tomorrow. Too many good things to be excited about for me to worry about munching out! I need to harness this Ranger Energy and keep moving towards my goals.

Genesis

This week begins a new journey for me. I have been extremely apathetic about my physical and mental health for the majority of my life. I picked up healthy eating tidbits from school and educational television, listened to the symptoms and causes of many diseases, but never once thought of a good reason to curb my appetite on account of problems that seemed to affect adults only. It was much later in life that I began to understand the effects of my behavior and choices, and yet there was still a barrier of laziness to overcome.

I waited patiently for a cure to laziness and realized nothing is found without looking for it. Realizing that this would force me to overcome this obstacle by the mere fact that I was trying to figure out a way to avoid it- I'm seeing how convoluted this has become already... long story short, it just seems to take a little discipline. Not like that of a religious monk or Jerry Rice (seriously, check out his workout), but the ability to say yes and no to myself with resolve. I am resolved to exercise daily and make healthier eating decisions. That's it. I'm not trying to mold myself into Michael Phelps, I just want to be a better me.

So, my hope is not that this entry is the first of two or three, but that it is the genesis to my revelation of a new body and spirit.