Sparkpeople.com

We all need a little help sometimes when it comes to staying on track with our goals of diet, exercise and weight lose. I have tried for years to do it on my own and have not had the success I would like. My wife has encouraged me to join weight watchers or some other group, believing that the social environment and accountability would be a big plus for me. Off course the big minus is they cost. Then along comes http://Sparkpeople.com. This website puts all the tools at your finger tips. There are meal trackers that will even print out the weekly grocery list. There are workout programs. There are specialty groups. Are you a mom of teens, do you have high blood pressure. Do you skip breakfast. There are others out there to connect with. Community is a big part of the program.

The fact that it is free made me a bit skeptical, but as I wondered through the pages I was not asked to pull out my credit card once. I can have my own blog on the sight, I can share my success and failure on line, and get encouragement to push on. It may not be exactly what you are looking for, but for free it is an awesome site. Take a quick look and tell me what you think. To bad I can’t just push a button and have the weight disappear.

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Seasonal Weight Loss

Just like the earth goes through its round of seasons each year, I have found that we as people do as well.  Living in the Pacific Northwest, many go through cycles of depression due to the dark rainy weather.  As the sun shines more  moods become brighter as well.  For me, there is something about spring that triggers a desire to focus on my health, to get outside and be active, to consider the way I look and treat myself.  As a result in April I once again began a focus on changing my lifestyle.  The way I drink, eat, sleep, deal with stress, etc...  All of these play into a healthy lifestyle.  So far I have been very successful. For some reason in the spring it is easy for me to focus and be successful. As summer starts to swing into gear, the summer parties with beer, chips, dips, and all the other unhealthy great tasting food easily knock me off track.  Then it is the seasonal food of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years that keeps me from getting back in gear.

To be successful, it is more about the upcoming seasons I will be facing, then about the current season I am in.  The excitement of losing weight and looking better each day is motivating.  It is what happens when I plateau, and others are enjoying those foods that I used to crave that I need to figure out.  So when I say I am looking forward to summer, it is in a whole new way. 

Wishing you success in this season.

South Beach Diet Success - Week #4

Another week of my life style change and still moving in the right direction. And while the real purpose of my life style change is to avoid becoming diabetic, to reduce blood pressure without medication, and to live past 56 (when my Dad died), I find that the loss of weight is becoming almost an obsession.  Each morning I get up and head right to the scale.  My mood for the day is determined by what the dial reads (I hate the control that scale has on my life).  I spend a lot of time thinking about combinations of foods,their affect on digestion and fat retention.  Gone are the days of sitting down and just simply enjoying the taste of a steak or piece of Salmon. A glass of wine is no longer thought of as a Shiraz or Merlot, or talked about regarding its quality, instead it has become a Carb and calories.  Yet this is exactly what I enjoy.  Eating has become another process to gain control over or system to tweak and master.  So far I am figuring it out.

As of today when I jumped off the scale the dial stopped at 211lbs. That is another 3lbs in a week and 19lbs in four weeks. The only bummer is that my official weigh in day wasn't yesterday when I woke up and saw 210.  While 200 lbs is out of reach for my birthday on June 4th, 205 could be close. 

The cool thing is I am making progress, feel that I am eating very well, seeing visible results, and realizing the benefits of healthy choices in terms of blood pressure and blood sugars.  That is huge and very motivating.  Ok, the comments of people noticing is also motivating. This is so worth the battle.

South Beach Week 3

Another week down and a few more pounds dropped.  This week allowed for the reintroduction of fruits and carbs back into the diet.  I have to admit, with the first two weeks calling foods high in sugar bad, it was almost scary to add them back in.  I have been very limited in how much fruit and bread I eat as I try to figure this part of the diet out.  I went mostly with a piece of 8 grain toast and red grapes.  The toughest part of the week was a party at our house last weekend. Chips, pasta salads, french fries, cheese cake, brownies, more chips, beer, wine, and hamburger buns, made it hard to find the vegetables and chicken. They were there but you had to look hard. Yes, I had a brownie, and a couple of chips.  The real problem was the beer, after two weeks of no alcohol I went overboard and really indulged in this area.  However, after my slip up I went right back on the diet and continued on.

I find that I love grilling food on the BBQ.  I just like the taste better.  Even veggies taste better that way. I am also getting smarter in how I store food before freezing.  I am anticipating nights that I will need to eat differently from the rest of my family and as a result am putting single steaks in a freezer bag so I don't have to thaw full slabs and then figure out how to deal with it.  My wife is also enjoying the fact that I am cooking and tries to have me cook for the entire clan a few times a week.  I am beginning to find it enjoyable. 

So, week three found me weighing in at 214lbs this morning. for my height of 5'11" that puts me at a Body Mass Index of 28.4. I am now officially overweight and not obese (not sure if that is something to cheer about or not).  That is a three pound drop from last week and 16 pounds overall. My birthday is June 4th, and while I won't be under 200lbs by then it sure would be great if I could get down to 205.  Anyway, I have been lax on any kind of exercise, so adding that back in should make a difference.  Although, adding muscle actually increases weight.  Still, I feel a lot better.  It is definitely worth the battle.

Dealing with Diet Setbacks

It was a gorgeous day Sunday.  Friends were coming over for a barbeque, the grill was ready to go, and the first guest to arrive comes in with a wonderful cheese cake for desert. Each guest to follow brought something equally off my diet like chips, rolls, you name it all the foods showed up calling my name.  Earlier in the day I had developed a plan on how to have just one beer, stay away from using a bun, stay with the veggies and not the chips. It was all going well until I noticed I was drinking beer number three and the party was still young.

As you can guess, with the resolve broken soon the chips and fries were on my plate, a brownie and who could pass on the cheese cake.  That night I felt like a loser, taken out of my game, I had blown it.  So now what?  My definition of a setback is something that impedes progress for a short time. I have determined the time for the setback is over and it its time to resume with the original plan of living healthy, so, back on the diet.

With South Beach you can move back and forth between phases.  I am going to jump back on the strict phase for a three to four days and keep moving ahead.  I am anticipating set backs along the way, however, I resolve to have a game plan to deal with them before they occur. And, if I should fail to stay with the plan, I commit to getting back on track the next day.  Again, I am talking about a change in lifestyle, one that corrects my blood chemistry (to the extent it can), that gets me off the obesity chart and even the overweight chart, that helps me lower my blood pressure, and results in a healthy life style.  It is worth the battle over set backs.

What Keeps Me From Living Healthy

I have been asking myself the last few days, what keeps me from living Healthy. By Healthy I mean, physically, emotionally, and socially. A few months ago I was ignorant of what healthy living might look like and entail. However, waking up, looking in the mirror, and being dissatisfied, I decided to start educating myself. There is a wealth of knowledge out there in books and on the web. The trick I've found is sifting through it and determining what applies to you and your life style, as opposed to just adopting whatever someone else says. So...... back to what keeps me from living healthy.

1. It takes work to live healthy - The planning of meals, the buying of good food, making time to work out and then actually doing it. I come home after working all day and am tired, now I need to work again?
2. I have to think - What is the Healthy choice? Should I really have another drink? Do I want to think this way? Is this something I should go to the doctor for? - When I get home from work I want to go mindless, not make more decisions.
3. It will cost me relationally - My friends are going out to eat? If I make time to exercise I won't have time for my friends/family? Why should everyone else have to make sacrifices for me to eat what I need to, exercise when I need to, etc...
4. I don't see immediate results - I want instant success that the world can see, not a slow over time change in my life.
5. If I go to the Doctor, he is going to tell me what I don't want to hear -

Of course my thinking is flawed, I see it in every line I write, but it is this very thinking that keeps me from living healthy. It is my thought process and way of thinking that is my biggest obstacle to living healthy. For most healthy living needs to start with changing the way we think and view life, work, relationships, happiness, success, etc.... It starts with facing the reality of "Who I am, Where I am at, and Where or Who I want to be." Seems so easy to say, but tough to do. For me I have 43 years of habits and faulty thinking to undo, if I am ever to have a chance at living healthy. Educating my self has been the starting point and a way to see what must change in my life.

There are lots of inspiring Blogs on healthy living a great way to find a few is on the search directories like Blog Top List - Heath, or, Blog Top Sites. And there is no end to the books on Healthy Living. Each of us needs to decide what place Healthy Living will play in our lives, and then we need to decide what we are willing to do to get there. Again, I say it is worth the battle if the outcome is a happier, healthier, better, me.

South Beach Diet - Obstacles to Success

I am officially on the South Beach Diet, Day 4 is just beginning. I notice I woke up less hungry than the first few days, and after eating I am full. This is great, because during the first few days I almost had to tie myself down to keep from heading to the fridge, convenience store, or fast food restaurant.

There were a few things I didn't anticipate or have a plan for going in, that you might want to be aware of as you start out on your diet, South Beach or other type):

• Co-Workers Candy Jars - Many offices where I work have candy jars. Some full of taffy, others M&M's. Prior to my diet I would take a few whenever I was in one of those offices. On day one I, without thinking, picked up a piece of taffy and popped it in my mouth. You need a plan to deal with your environment.
• The Mother In Law - Day two I got a call at work that we were going over to the In Laws for dinner. Not a problem because we do this almost once a week. However, when at someone else's house you lose control of what is being prepared. Noticing it, I quickly mentioned I was on a diet. We were having Hamburgers, Potatoes, lots of wine, and cake. With her ok I went for the Hamburger without the bun and Ketchup and instead put on some mustard, took some extra tomatoes and onions, poured up a big glass of water, found the makings for a salad, and skipped out on dessert. Since it was only one hamburger patty and I was on day two, I went home a bit hungry. I quickly made up a SB dessert and made it through the day ok. You need to be able to improvise when needed.
• Today I have an all day meeting away from my facility. Of course I am in the medical field so all the healthy snacks will be there like; Costco Muffins - 100% Carb, small little candy bars, hard candy, pop, etc... I am known for eating a good amount of these items as I am a stress eater and these meeting produce a lot of it. Also, I lose control of lunch again. So, I will bring a few of my cheese sticks, and try to grab a bag of nuts on my way in to the meeting. I'll grab some water as well. Think ahead when you know what your walking into.
• After the meeting a group of us usually go out for drinks, and we can drink a lot. Since alcohol is off the diet at the moment, and this is an area of weakness - not the drinking, but the hanging out with friends and having a few, I will probably need to avoid the temptation all together and head home early tonight. Avoid your areas of weakness when possible.

There are many obstacles to success in dieting. My list is growing and I am only starting day four. I anticipate things like boredom with the food choices, the desire to go out to eat, etc... will soon make my list. It would be great to hear from you what obstacles you have faced and what you are doing to keep them from hindering your resolve to live healthy. I will make sure your thoughts get posted.

Dangers of Obesity

Since determining that I am that magic Body Mass Index number that equals obesity, I have been thinking a lot about what it means or could mean. I work in the health care industry and see people who are morbidly obese, and the effects it has on their health, their live style, their self esteem, their relationships, and just about every other aspect of life. You would think that seeing someone struggle to walk or even breathe would motivate me to get on track and lose the 50 pounds that I need to lose. But since finding out that I am more than overweight, I have become a little depressed and unmotivated. Realizing this is not good, I decided to do a little research on obesity and its potential dangers. Here is what I found:

• Heart disease is greatly increased in those who are in the overweight category - a body mass index of 25+.
• Those who are overweight run a higher risk of type II diabetes
• Those who are obese have a 50% greater chance of dying prematurely than those who are of a healthy weight.
• High Blood Pressure and all the health issues that come with it are twice as likely in those that are obese.
• Increased likelihood of Depression
• Increased likelihood of Gallbladder disease
• increased likelihood of Incontinence

and the lists go on and on and on and ..........

So what does it take for someone to get out of the feeling of being stuck, and to begin embracing and moving towards health. For some there is a strong emotional tie to food, and a councilor is probably needed. For others it is making a choice to change directions and habit patterns.

It is something that I believe is worth battling for, but is very tough to do alone. If you have had success in this area, please share some of the steps you took to be successful. We can all do this.

So What Keeps You From Living Healthy?

Yesterday was a day full of problems for living Healthy. It was Easter, I had to work and deal with a few tough situations, it was raining, friends and family were over, we had Mexican food. All of these things piled up on each other and I found myself not running, I ate more then I wanted, and basically I fell into the victim role.

You are a victim when you feel that others, or your circumstances are controlling you, or that you are powerless to change the way things are going. Click here for a good link on Victim Mentality. Victim mentality is very dangerous to living healthy because it is a way of hiding from the truth, that you are in control of your body, and your choices. I chose to not run in the rain, I chose to eat as much of the dip, and enchilada, and taco's as I did. No one made these decisions for me. I have to be honest with myself, that I chose family, friends, food and drink, over eating healthy and exercising. To make it worse, when I went to bed I wanted to blame my family and friends for my choices

The way out of the victim cycle is to acknowledge that you are in control. Then to prioritize healthy living above everything else. Exercise needs to be scheduled into my life if it is to happen. I need to think through parties ahead of time and the choices I want to make, before I have to make them. In the Battle of Living Healthy, I need to be in control, not choosing to allow others to control me. If I had run and come 30 minutes late, no one would have cared. No one was watching how much I ate. If I had been stronger, I would be feeling better about myself today, and feeling good about yourself is part of living healthy. It is worth battling for.

Your Views on Food

Why do you eat? My wife has been a runner for almost 20 years now. Even after running a marathon and a number of Hood To Coast Relays, and at least a dozen 1/2 marathons, she doesn't think of herself as a run, but she is. She is also very disciplined when it comes to food. I on the other hand have attempted to train for a marathon, have been to Mt. Hood and the Coast, and a number of years ago ran a 5k. I am not disciplined when it comes to food.

I was very intrigued when a few months ago we had a discussion on eating. While my wife enjoys a good meal, for her eating is about feeding the machine. She eats because it is necessary in order to do the things in her day she wants to do. Taste has very little to do with it. Very rately will she have seconds and other than a polite, "that was very good," to friends who invite over for dinner you never hear her talk about the taste or texture of a great meal. For me, food is something to experience and enjoy. Each bite brings pleasure. Getting full gets in the way of my enjoyment. I can talk about the taste of a good steak for days. I wake up thinking about Mexican food.

Obviously we are all very different in our motivation for eating. From a healthy perspective food is about feeding the machine. If our bodies are machines, we need to make sure we are using the right types of fuel in the right combinations. There is nothing that says it can't taste good, but for me, my enjoyment of food is dangerous, and goes against my goal of trying to live healthy. I do not want to go on a diet. I want to think right about food, and eat food right.