loosing weight – below 240 lbs.

236 lbs

Down to 236 lbs today!

I have not really been focused on eating right or exercising lately due to taking care of the baby, etc. (hard to avoid snacks and caffeine when you are up all hours of the night) so that new job I picked up a few months back has really been helping me lose weight more than anything so far lately… I did do a few kettlebell swings the last week or two from time to time, but nothing too serious…

Tomorrow I DO Plan to start working on a new workout schedule daily. I’m focusing on some Tai-Chi and yoga type stuff for now for flexibility since there are some aches and pains the job is giving me, and I’m hoping that type of stretching workouts will help with that type of problem. I’ll eventually go in to some other workouts that are more aerobic down the road, but for now this is what I’m feeling the need to do since I have to listen to my body…

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Happy New Year

I was watching the news the other day and they said that you should choose one word as a new years resolution goal and focus on it the entire year. This year’s word for me is “health.” I plan to obtain that resolution/goal in a variety of ways. It includes both diet as well as exercise, but also includes a lot of other things too such as staying away from foods I’m allergic too more than I did last year, looking for non-traditional as well as traditional ways of being healthy, focusing on environmental things that keep me from the goal of being healthy, de-stressing, focusing on health issues of those around me, listening to my body more, and a lot of other things. Happy new year to everyone.

Hope this year is a great one for you. Be excellent to one another!

slowly making progress

weight chart

Progress is slower than it should be since I probably gained a few lbs after grandma’s funeral a few weeks back due to stress eating, and because I haven’t been super focused on working out daily or watching carb intake. Last week I missed a few days of working out since I tried an advanced workout tape that was just a little too much and I was sore from it a few days after that. Today I managed to get in an exercise tv tape in the morning and 3 mile walking tape in this afternoon. Tonight we are going shoe shopping. Hoping that will help with the exercise since working out in shoes that are slightly falling apart from overuse just makes things a little rougher than it should be…

Starting to get below the red line!

265.2 lbs in today’s weigh in. I’ve been bad with the exercise regimen the last week or so it’s got to be the diet that’s causing it a little.

Found out a couple of weeks ago I’m allergic to wheat, soy, chicken, and corn, and a lot of various pollen, including maple and pecan, which probably means I’m partly allergic to maple syrup as well as pecans. I don’t think they tested me for almonds but those always tore up the back of my throat so I think it may be that too. Got rid of all of that stuff from the diet over the last few days, so I think that this new eating clean diet is helping a lot. It’s a struggle daily, but it seems to be paying off already after only a few day! It’s amazing how many hidden ingredients there are with corn and soy in just about everything everywhere you look.

The What’s in this stuff app has been an enormous help with shopping. Highly recommend it. It has a keyword search thing so like if you type in soy it brings up a bunch of various keywords tied to that that you’ll find on labels. It’s not a comprehensive list though since I’ve found even more words and keep emailing the developer asking them to add more and more, so hopefully over time it’ll be the most comprehensive word database on this type of stuff around…

For instance, under one of my many lists on that site, I have
Acesulfame Potassium, Acetylated Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Diglycerides, Ammonium Chloride, Artificial Color, Artificial Flavor, Aspartame, Azodicarbonamide, Benzoate, Benzoate of Soda, Benzoyl Peroxide, BHA, BHT, Bleached Flour, Blue 1, Blue 2, Brominated Vegetable Oil, Calcium and Sodium Propionate, Calcium Disodium EDTA, Calcium Peroxide, Calcium Propionate, Calcium Saccharin, Calcium Sorbate, Calcium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Carmine, DATEM, Dimethyl Silicone, Dimethylpolysiloxane, Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, EDTA, Ethoxyquin, Ethyl Vanillin, Ethylene Oxide, Green 3, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, L-Cysteine, Methyl Silicon, Methylparaben, Monosodium Glutamate, Partially Hydrogenated, Partially Hydrogenated Canola, Partially Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Corn Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soybean Oils, Partially Hydrogenated Oil, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oils, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Polydextrose, Potassium Benzoate, Potassium Bisulfite, Potassium Bromate, Potassium Metabisulfite, Potassium Sorbate, Propionate, Propyl Gallate, Propylparaben, Red 3, Red 40, Saccharin, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Bisulfite, Sodium Cyclamate, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Glutamate, Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite, Sodium Propionate, Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Sodium Sulfite, Sorbic Acid, Sucralose, Sulfur Dioxide, TBHQ, Vanillin, Yellow 5, Yellow 5 & 6, Yellow 6

It’s crazy to think that some of that ties in to soy allergies, but based on a lot of reading I’ve done on numerous blogs and websites the last few weeks it all ties in in various ways… the whole food industry hides stuff from you behind weird chemical names.

For example, did you know that Bromine is one of the main ingredients in the vegetable oil that’s in Mt. Dew and Diet Mt. Dew… and that that stuff is actually a dangerous toxin that has put several people in the hospital over the last several years because they drank too much mt. dew and similar types of drinks with that stuff in it? Kinda scary to think about since I used to drink tons of Mt. Dew, and then diet dew after getting diagnosed with diabetes. I still might have an occasional drink, but for the most part have cut it out of my diet along with a lot of other stuff.

Luckily, I don’t think I’m allergic to rice, so rice cakes and rice based cereals seem to be somewhat safe, at least at the moment.

starting to track things again

Image

starting up again copy

I’ve started tracking things a bit with some open office documents. I’m going to try to re-start my exercise program in the very, very near future.

I probably won’t count 1000 days like I was back a while ago since that just got to be too darn tedious, but I am planning on updating the above file to reflect current weight loss. Blue Line is weigh ins that I have recorded in this blog and in more recent things in the file at home that I may not have blogged about yet. Red line is following a goal from starting out one lb above where I started this tracking to where I think a great BMI weight would be in 5 years from now.

I like setting up a chart like this to track things since it’ll help me maintain a goal that is visible… I’m a highly visually oriented person so nice charts like this help me stay on focus and realize gains and losses far more powerfully than just putting it all in some other format.

The reason for the red line in the chart is because of some reading I was doing the last few days on some blogs related to the NO-S diet and some tips and tricks some other folks were using or have used in the past to lose weight. One blog entry talked about a book from the 1970s or so that talked about charting your goal weight loss on pen and paper and if you go above the line you eat less or exercise more and if above you go below, give yourself a little leeway, etc.

I’m planning to workout about 10-15 minutes daily in the morning… using various workouts on video and/or off of online sources like youtube. Somedays I might tweet about the morning videos from time to time… at https://twitter.com/JeffThomann in case you want to follow the videos I’m using, etc. It’s mostly going to be hasfit, bodyrock, and various other random stuff off of youtube, etc. However, finding those links can be tricky someday, so following tweets might make the search for great 10 minute workouts for you easier since it’s been a little, ok a lot, of a chore for me to gather them together…

Then at night I’ll do a longer 20-30 minute or longer workout, probably using some other youtube type sources as well as various workout dvds we’ve purchased over the years (some of which only were opened a few weeks ago even though we owned them for about 3+ years already!).

I like putting videos on tweets like that because it feeds in to facebook a lot cleaner than doing it via this blog.. also it’s a lot easier to just click the little bird icon for twitter on youtube, etc. than it is to post on the blog here… I like blogging, but for every day stuff like that tweets are better…

I’m hoping I can get to BMI goal weight by 5 years from now… I am giving myself that much time, but am hoping I’ll actually reach it much quicker than that… If I do I do, if not, not… I’m just trying to mainly get in shape, and getting to target BMI is THE WAY that traditionally has been recommended by doctors and the exercise science folks as the way to do it…

Portion control on eating is hard for me…. so it’s back to the NO S diet if I can help it. I like that diet since it’s habit based and long term based – which is something I definitely need since short term fad diets just don’t cut it for the type of long term health I’m aiming for here…

so I’m going back to my old trick I mentioned on NO S forums a while back of not carrying money with me… only putting in wallet license and other little stuff to identify me, etc. like insurance cards, etc… and then using debit/credit cards/gift cards, etc. only if I really, really, really need it – sort of hiding it from myself so I don’t use the money in gluttonous ways as I have in the past. I figure if I don’t have the money on me, it won’t go to the cafeteria at work, the snack machine, the atm machine so that I can use it to feed a vending machine, etc. Our budget is a bit tight at the moment since Tekla’s still going to school too – so that helps me not spend in excess as I might have let myself in the past…

More exercise based blog posts might be coming in the future. 🙂 😉

Zapped!… When I eat crap I feel like crap…

This morning I am zapped… I’m tired. I’m sleepy. I feel like crap. The reason is that last night I sweated a ton as I slept and there was at least twice during the night that I got up during the night after tossing and turning and didn’t manage to get the bipap mask back on… so a bad night got worse.

Yesterday, my parents were kind and took us out to eat at subway, where I foolishly had a foot long spicy italian on italian herbs and cheese… and that was followed by a very high carb trip to Orange Leaf next door to the subway.

That many carbs is always a mistake… and it makes me feel bad later… I’m paying for it now. High carb meals like that for dinners make me sweat a LOT when I sleep… the pillow and sheets are so wet with sweat that they are soaked. What’s bad about it is that since I became diabetic, bad sweats at night like that always reek somewhat later since there’s something in the chemistry behind whatever is causing it that makes it very acidic and almost smell like vinegar. All that icky sweat in the pillow and sheets make it very difficult to go back to bed after I awaken at various times during the night.

so.. needless to say, I’m feeling like crap today… so I’m not working out this morning… but I do plan on trying to work out tonight if I can… and hopefully this won’t happen again, and I can muster the courage and willpower to avoid overeating in the future in situations like last night… it is just so hard to fight the temptations when you are surrounded by people that are overeating at family get together type of things like we had yesterday (we had a big brunch at my Uncle and Aunt’s house earlier in the day, and mom and dad just stuck around in town afterwards. The brunch was not so bad… it’s the dinner that was.).

What’s really sad about it all… feeling this lousy in the morning, I’ll probably feel the need to eat wrong today and have a bunch of caffeine, and/or sugary type of foods, all of which just amplifies the problems and makes the vicious cycle get worse…

Day 29 – (warning: there’s a weigh in and video)

one month of weight loss

Well, it’s the 29th day of the 1000 day challenge. Tomorrow is day 30, the time of no more taking it easy…

Tomorrow I will start the 2nd month’s challenge, which will be doing that second workout every day, at least 5 days a week – 6 if possible. I will keep doing the one workout a day in the morning, and then do this second workout after work. I expect to see some major calorie burning going on since I’m basically going to be doubling the number of calories burned daily through exercise. Because of that I probably will need to keep an eye on my blood sugar a lot more than I have up til now because going low on sugar can be a big problem for me since I’m diabetic. It’s never been an issue too much up til now since I never really went to my max on exercise, but doing two hard workouts daily might put me there…

Today I also tried doing a little writing at lunch. I’m going to try to make that in to a habit over time.. I’m using the habit tracker from the LDS that was linked to from one of the first posts about the 1000 day challenge. I’m using that tracker for stuff like that instead of the main ones because it lets me track a little easier than the regular one that tracks day by day… since it’s a cross off tracker. I’m also using that tracker to start tracking my times of going to the gas station and paying at the pump (instead of going in, and likely picking up some diet soda and snacks in the convenience store while at as I typically have done in the past – a bad habit I’m trying to start to break…)

I decided to go ahead and shoot the video for this ‘month’ tonight since it’s still afternoon so the light is good…

Plus I really just kind of want to see where I am visually with the video comparisons so that I know where I need to go as that sort of gives me inspiration about what level I need to aim for tomorrow and going forward. The videos take a little while to upload and link to, etc. and this blog posting takes a little while to put together so I’m probably going to not exercise tonight, or on other month ends when these types of videos get posted.

Today’s weigh in weight is 273.6 lbs. That’s 19 lbs down since 9/3/2012, and 22.9 lbs down since 6/24/2012. That puts my goal of ‘getting in to my BMI target range’ at somewhere between 96.6 lbs -133.6 lbs more to lose. It’d be nice if I reach that goal in the next year or so, but if it takes longer, it takes longer… That’s why I’m making this is a 1000 day challenge, not a 30 day challenge, not a 90 day challenge, but 1000 day challenge… In the past I’d have seen this sort of progress and just quit after that… not this time… going all the way to that 1000 days, exercising and doing other things to live a better life than I ever have in my entire life. It will be so nice to actually get to the ‘BMI’ weight that Doctors are always talking about… that weight where people can’t say you are obese any more… where you can look at them and say I got down to my goal weight, why aren’t you there yet?… 😉

Here’s the video I shot this afternoong, Day 29 of the 1000 Day Challenge (10/2/2012)
273.6 lbs:

Here’s the video from Day zero of the 1000 day challenge (9/3/2012) – 292.6 lbs

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Below are the videos and weight ins from before the 1000 day challenge when I tried to do the Power 90 but had to quit around day 60 because of an accidental stab wound… which caused me to have to ‘rest’ 2 weeks which really was not good on the weight loss thing, but that’s the past… I’m looking forward now… Just looking at the videos for comparison purposes… Even though the past is the past, it’s good to know where you came from so that you can tell where you are going…

8/21/2012 – 284.6 lbs

8/16/2012 – 285.3 lbs:

8/9/2012 – 281.8 lbs

8/1/2012 – 284.8 lbs

7/24/2012 – 286.2 lbs

7/17/2012 – 289.2 lbs:

7/14/2012 – 288.6 lbs

Before then

6/29/2012 I was 292.1 lbs

6/24/2012 I was 296.5 lbs

Memorial Day – May 28, 2012 –

4/30/2012

4/10/2012

I have to thank my amazing wife, Tekla, for being behind me all the way in this crazy 1000 day challenge thing. Sorry I wake you up so early darling but now you can start to see the progress…

This is only the beginning…

Much more to come. 😉 🙂 :p

(*note – if some of the videos don’t show yet, it’s probably because they are not done uploading yet… Currently uploading the oldest ones and they are only at 5% upload progress so far in youtube at the time of this posting… if you really have to see the vids, come back and look again tomorrow…*)

sleeping in and caffiene makes me irritable!

Slept in today since I was wanting to ‘go easy’ on myself before day 30 when I crank up the workouts to twice a day every day at least 5 days a week… but did something foolish the last few days and drank coffee, and diet soda… all that caffiene is just making me irritable… and cranky…. I need to make it a point to wipe caffiene out of my life. I was doing ok with that goal a while back but then let a little in, and it all snowballed in to addiction again… it’s a very vicious cycle… it’s a very dangerous cycle too, especially with exercise involved since it artificially accelerates heart rate way above where it should be, which is not good during workouts or during ‘rest’ periods…

Stuck some paper clips in the handle of the coffee cup I usually use at work again today and stuck it in the back of the locked file cabinet instead of in it’s usual location on top of the desk in hopes that that might help some…

I might have to ‘mummify’ the wallet again. I didn’t get around to that this week and having that card handy has been causing problems. Caffiene addiction is more than that though.. it’s tough to beat coffee addiction where I work because they have the coffee pot hooked directly up to a water tap, so no one even has to fill the pot up with water… and it’s one of those commercial pot systems that has 3 burners, so as soon as a pot is done, someone will move it to another burner and start up another pot, all day long… as if that’s not bad enough, there’s both sugar and sugar free sweeteners and hot cocoa packets there too, and it’s all less than 20 feet away from where I sit at my cubicle… so I have that smell all day even if I’m not drinking it…

but I’ve done this stopping caffiene thing before, so I know i can do it again…

Just a matter of exerting some willpower…

Also, I think some of the crankiness comes from not working out in morning. That early morning workout makes me feel more in control of life, and full of energy in a good way due to the endorphins, etc. it creates… as well as the weight loss it causes. (weighed in last night 2 lbs over last weigh in — mainly due to lasagna the last few nights as leftovers for dinners and due to Tekla making some yellow cake with chocolate icing a few days ago – very nice of her to do that, but that type of cake and pasta are my downfalls, so the weight comes on like a magnet when they are around…)

so… tomorrow I might reset clock to get up and workout in morning… but only time will tell if I actually work out or not.

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darn caffeine always put me in to an eat everything mood… so at the gas station after work I said to hell with it and had the 100 g carb gardettos and King size Kit Kat…

Why does this shit put me in to this overeating mode? Got to stop… got to control it… Damnit… headache from hell makes me want to make the pain go away… and food makes it go away, but only so temporarily… damn it… damn it… damn it… all this creates self hatred and feeling bad about it… which just causes even more vicious cycle from hell… and the cycle continues…

Might work out tonight, but might not.. need to… but…
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that’s the problem… butt… and gut… damn it…guilt, shame, self loathing, but why?… that just causes more of the same… got to smile… got the say no more, I can control this and stop… I can turn it around right here… right now…


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Day 19 – Rest.

Today is a rest day, but I did do a few Kettle bell swings. I decided to lighten the load to one of the 7.5 lb weights for now since I’ll probably do more reps and focus on weight loss/learning correct form vs muscle gain for now. Also, spent a few hours this morning watching youtube videos and linking to some of them in the little Diet and Exercise Video section of this blog. I am starting to get a quite a few little links in there. Will add more over time. If I get a ton of them eventually I’ll probably try to organize it a little more so it’s a little easier to understand what’s what etc.

Tekla’s going to be starting an Eat to Live diet in a few days. The book just came in the mail yesterday… Seems like an interesting diet plan… have not had time to read all of it myself yet, but based on what she and I have talked about in the first few pages and various pages she’s jumped around to in it it seems a little like a vegan version of an Atkins diet sort of, with focus on veggies instead of meat. I’m not sure I can do that myself much since I need protein I think, and lean meat has the best form of that.

Day 16 weigh in.

Day 16 weigh in for this 1000 day journey:
276.5 Lbs.

That’s a weight loss of 16.1 lbs since 9/3/2012 when I started the 1000 days, and a loss of 20.00 lbs exactly since 6/24/2012 when I originally started the Power 90 workouts before being interrupted by the knife wound. It feels good to finally officially be able to say I’ve lost 20 lbs in less than 3 months! 🙂

Now, if I can just keep it up and stay focused til I get to the BMI goal weight, which is anywhere from 140-177 lbs roughly…. That means the goal is somewhere between 99.5 – 136.5 lbs more to lose. It feels fantastic to be able to say that the goal is less than 100 lbs away. I have not been able to say that for quite some time. I know I probably can’t keep up the speed of loss that I have been able to do so far since I probably will hit plateaus along the way, but if I can, I should hopefully be able to achieve the bmi goal far quicker than I originally intended. However, I’m not going to put too many hopes on that yet since I don’t want to push myself too darn hard. Just work it slowly off, working a little every day towards the goals.

Once I do get down to that bmi weight the main goal for this 1000 day thing will be met, but then will come the tough part of maintaining that weight. That’s one of the reasons I made this challenge at least 1000 days in length – to give myself enough time to stay healthy for a relatively lengthy period of time. I do plan to keep it up the rest of my life actually, but 1000 days is just sort of a way to mentally keep track of an obtainable end goal for now. Little 30 day challenges, crash diets, and stuff like the Power 90 by itself are short term goals, not ‘healthy living for the long haul.’ I’m in this for the long haul! 🙂 (that’s something I could not say a few years ago since I was always looking too much at short term goals, getting disappointed when the short term goals were not getting met, and then just gave up… no more giving up… )

Day 10 of the 1000 day challenge.

This morning, I did a Fit for Duty kickboxing routine. It’s was a pretty light workout, but it’s a nice way to get the heart rate up and sort of ‘wake up’ to the day…

Last night I didn’t do so hot on the dieting thing… After that hard workout, I had a salad with a full orange, some mini tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, and some leftover meat… then Tekla got home and wanted to go out, so at Denny’s I had a half order of the cranberry chicken salad. I avoided the bread there (had a small corner of it, but that was it…) After we got home, and ready for bed, I was still a bit sore from the workout and was feeling odd so checked sugar at it was 100 at 9:30 pm, just like it was at 3:30 pm… so I then had a couple of cinnamon graham crackers with hazelnut jif as a snack. That jif stuff is fairly low carb but it’s high calorie… Hopefully today will be a better dieting day. It’s hard to remember that salads, meat, and cheese type of stuff isn’t all that I should eat since they are all fairly low carb, so have little impact on blood sugar level… so if I eat meals based on those, I need some form of carbs to balance it out since I need 45-55 carbs or so per meal.

I think my screw up yesterday was that I took an orange along with a ham and cheese sandwich and some mushrooms and a few mini-tomatoes to lunch, but didn’t eat the orange, so carb level was too low after lunch and it impacted me the rest of the day.

Day 8 Morning…

Well, it’s September 11, and my 8th day of the 1000 day challenge. The morning Workout was just completed.

Almost forgot to eat some ham during breakfast, so added that as a note to my daily excel tracker. It’s important to have protein after workouts according to many forums and blogs I’ve read since your body supposedly ‘absorbs’ the protein best within one hour after working out… so I probably will start snacking on a little ham, turkey or something similar after both the morning and evening workout. I don’t plan to do a lot of other snacking, but am considering this an important snack so won’t count it as an S on the No S diet that I’m starting to follow, but not as strictly as I probably should yet… I may even convert it in to supper after the evening workout if I feel the need to eat more since my wife doesn’t always get home til fairly late in the evening, and as mentioned in a previous post, I’m diabetic, so I don’t know if I can keep up waiting for her all the time for supper because I need my energy for the workouts and also to keep up sugar levels since my lunch is actually fairly early most days at work. We are trying to eat healthier… lots of salads, veggies, a few fruits, and stuff like mushrooms, spinach, etc. Lots of salads will probably be our near future.

My typical breakfast these days is a bowl of honey cheerios in milk with ginger sprinkled on it and a couple of teaspoons of milled flaxseed, and sometimes a little sprinkle of tumeric (the ginger and tumeric are supposed to help with inflammation, so in theory help keep pain levels down a little). My typical lunch is a ham, turkey, or some other type of meat sandwich with a slice of cheese, two slices of bread, a sprinkle of tumeric and sometimes some other sort of spice on it – curry, or garlic salt, or Italian, or just the tumeric and somedays not even that, just the turkey and cheese… sandwich has some spinach or lettuce on it most days, but not all days. Sides for lunch are usually some type of fruit – usually an orange, and some type of veggie or ligher version of fruit or light healthy food — peppers, mushrooms, mini-tomatoes, grapes, etc. Suppers vary from day to day, but I’m probably going to try more salads with some meat and light fruits in it.

Last night, after the ‘Fit for Duty’ workout I was fairly sore in back and calves. Luckily, my amazing wife is currently in training to be a massage therapist so she gave me a very nice calf rub last night that helped enormously. I also took a hot bath after that to help a little too. I haven’t had a ‘bath’ for years since I’m usually a shower person, but as I increase the intensity and amount of workouts I’m doing daily, I probably will start doing that more often since that hot water and steam is amazing for the leg pain. I think that I really need to start working bathes in more since my calves get so tight after some workouts if I really push it, and because my shins seem to be a magnet for shin splints if I overdo things too much.

In this mornings workout, I was able to do at least one and a half rounds of jumping jacks and bunny hops before I had to switch to doing the side steps due to the leg pain… so my endurance is definitely improving. I probably will try to stick with the I-II tapes for most of 30 days since I’m working in an evening workout when I can since I don’t want to overdo things and burn out… taking it nice and slow and easy on this round of Power 90 because I don’t have day 90 as my end goal… I have day 999 as being one day away from an end goal… actually, I don’t even really have much of a pre-conceived goal in mind because I think sometimes that type of thing, when it comes to weight loss and getting in shape is really counter-productive…

I do plan to get in shape, get healthy, and ultimately get to my BMI target goal someday… I do not plan on setting a day that I’ll get to that weight goal and then beating myself up if I don’t get there by day X. I just am enjoying the ride towards this healthier way of living… It’s an amazing new way of life! 🙂

Do whatever you must do – whatever it will be – it will be the right choice… No need to beat yourself up if you don’t always meet your goals 1000% of the time… You should be congratulated for at least trying since that’s 90% more than most people do. If you don’t get to where you want to be, just re-adjust, alter course, and head in a new direction unhindered by past failures… No need to beat yourself up for trying to do the right things! 😉

gaS does have an S in it.. but…

Gas does have an S in it, but I need to stop treating days like today when I filled the tank as S days on the No S diet…

What I need to really do is pay at the pump so that I’m not tempted by what’s inside of the gas stations… but ol habbits are hard to break.. so today, I had a 44oz mix of diet mt. dew with a splash of tropicana hawaiian punch to flavor it since dew is too bland by itself… then foolishly had a ‘smoke stack’ — which is a beef jerky type of thing with cheese sticks, and crackers and cheese on top…

then still had the wallet at work, so at lunch overate by having 3 cookies in the cafeteria as well as a 32 oz mix of mt. dew and wild cherry diet pepsi…

What I must do… or need to do… not treat the days I need my wallet (and don’t have it mummified where it takes me 5-10 minutes to unwrap it as a means of keeping myself from having too easy of an access to cash/debit card) as S days, and/or only fill up on gas on the weekends on S days so that way I’m not tempted to overdo it like I did today, and have more control. I wanted to do that over the weekend, but Friday, Saturday and Sunday all three, I managed to say I was going to fill up with gas and did not… part of that saying it might have caused subconsious type of rebellion that caused today’s actions?… also, I think the harder workout today with the dumbbells than I’m used to might have caused some pain or sense of deprivation that caused that rebellion to scream and release itself from the subconsious… old habbits are hard to break, and new ones are hard to establish, but working through it like I’m doing here in this post is one small way I can accomplish just that… now it’s acknowledged, time to move on, and not harp about it anymore, which just causes more negativity snowballs that cause pain and misery. Time to smile in a mirror and move on happily, brush off the dust from this slam on the ground, get up, and move on with even more determination than I had before! 🙂

day 5 of the 1000 day challenge …

Well, it’s day 5 of the 1000 day challenge. I’ve decided to make today a ‘rest day.’ I’ll also probably consider this an S day of the No S diet, so will give myself a little slack. I was originally going to make Sundays be the S day, but Saturday seems more logical since it’s the day after a long work week.

ok… No S might not work for me…

I was trying to do the No S diet, but am not sure if it’s going to work for me 100% of the way. I’ve been on the forums for that for a few days, and reading other’s experiences, etc. I was trying to stay strictly to the “no snacks, no sweets, no seconds” rules even though I wasn’t as strict with some of the modifications (mods) I was doing to it so far as it was not my ONE THING to focus on this month in the 1000 day challenge. In other words, we went out to eat twice this week. It’s been hard to not do that because Tekla gets home so late after commuting back and forth from St. Louis to go to classes. She’s been getting home after 8 PM some days, and by that time, if we don’t have a meal ready at home, we need to go out to eat to get something fast since we are both diabetic and have had many hours since lunch time when we last ate…

Last night when we were at Steak and Shake for dinner we were discussing this issue a little. (No, we did not have a shake, which was awesome because in the past we might have given in to that temptation) My sugar was 95 according to my meter before the meal. That may have actually been lower than that because a few months back I did a ‘study’ with the exercise science branch of the University in which I had to use another meter at the same time that I was using my own meter. That meter consistently read about 10 points above my meter… and it was supposedly calibrated since they were using it to study a lot of different people for various studies… so that 95 may have actually been 85… Before dinner last night I felt weak, had a headache… from temple to temple across my forehead felt like a ‘dried out sponge’… with a lot of holes in it… it was definitely a low sugar moment… I hate those. Honestly, since the time I became diabetic, I really start feeling that sort of way any time my sugar level is below 100 according to my meter. Supposedly, if you sugar drops to 83, you are in severe need of sugar immediately… If Tekla is experiencing this same sort of thing when she’s on I-70 coming home from school by herself, it’s a very life-threatening issue. There’s been at least one or two times she’s been in that sort of situation… and it scares the hell out of me… It also scares me about my own sugar too since she’s getting home so late, and I am home by myself til that point in time…. so if I passed out, no one would be here to call 911 or do anything about it until she gets home, which may be too late…

so we talked about this all a little, and we’ve decided that she’s going to start packing a lunch and dinner to school (she was just packing lunch up til now) and I’m going to have to start eating either a snack or a ‘dinner’ by myself here at the apartment by myself after work before she gets home so that we don’t risk this problem every day… I was trying to only eat when she got home, but it’s clear now that that just isn’t going to work for either of us, at least for now until her schedule changes to when she can be home earlier.

I’ve been trying to eat healthy when we do eat at home… typically something like a spinach salad with some fruit and meat in it and/or some mushrooms, etc. Not sure if I’ll eat full meals after work or go back to the snacking on stuff like crackers and cheese, sunflower seeds, sugar free cookies, or other fairly low-carb snacks like I used to do…

right now I’m still in a little bit of an intermediary stage since I’m gaining back my endurance on the daily workouts and am doing them once a day instead of twice a day. When I get back full swing in to doing them twice a day, I’ll probably need the extra earlier food/snack anyways to keep up strength in managing to do that. Supposedly your body is most willing to absorb carbs/protein one hour after a workout anyways, so I guess it makes sense to eat earlier… just kinda sucks that I won’t be able to eat dinner with my wife like I’ve been trying to do the last few days. 😦

Day 4 of the 1000 day challenge…

Day 4 of the 1000 day challenge is now complete. Did a workout this morning a few minutes ago! 🙂

I wasn’t sure about doing this before the workout since this morning my calf had a really weird tightening cramp going on about 3 AM after my wife’s foot hit my leg while she was sleeping… calf cramp was extremely painful… but after reading some of the diet quotes about how exercise is good to combat pain as it moves the lactic acid, it made me go ahead and try it out today, and sure enough, I made it through the workout ok. That calf is a still a little sore now, but not as bad as it was before the workout.

Trying to combat this pain a little with some ginger and tumeric in the cereal this morning besides just the milled flaxseed that usually goes in there… Supposedly these spices help combat inflammation type of pain…

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edit – WOW! Ginger in the cereals milk is fantastic tasting. Can’t taste the tumeric much, but that ginger really gives the cereal some really good flavor. Surprised no cereal producers have put this sort of spice on many of their products yet, lol.

1000 day challenge!

edit – The newest Version of the Blank Tracker is here: https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1000-days-backup-backup.xls Tweaked it a bit. Fixed the 30 day counter part and added a few columns to the right, etc.

Also, created a new spreadsheet that is a 1000 day countdown thing. https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/1k-days-countdown.xls.

A pdf copy of this is available at https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/1k-days-countdown-xls.pdf

Feel free to use either file however you want (ok, don’t use it to go murder someone with paper cuts and blame me – I take no responsibility for your actions! If you succeed, don’t succeed with your goals, or don’t care, I still take no responsibility for your actions!).

The 1000 day countdown is a simple one page document with 1000 day counter on it listed in reverse order from 1000 days so you can cross off every day you get past your new days… For some people simple scratch off lists like this work better than the other type of check box list. For me personally, I’ll probably use both, also use the blog, and probably an excel file or two that’s saved digitally too since I find that checking off multiple lists helps me stay more in tune and in focus with getting goals done… making things down multiple times helps reinforce the idea that I actually am accomplishing something and can succeed. Not everyone is like that… If you do the 1000 day countdown thing, it only has room for small amount of notes, so maybe just do one of those countdown pages for each goal you have… maybe as a way to continue past the 1000 day tracker for all 33 checks just for the ‘really important’ goals that you feel you ‘must do’ for 1000 days in a row (for me that’ll be daily exercises – I will do an up and down slash on morning days, a cross slash through that to make a plus sign for the evening workouts, and a circle around the middle area where that plus should be daily for the ‘no s’ successful days — that way I’ve got that tracking my three huge diet and exercise goals, and the other tracker tracking that and everything else I figure out as my 33 goals, and the blog here and digital copies of the big tracker as a way to track another copy in case the paper gets torn, messed up by getting rained on, etc….)

Here’s a tip… on the row 3, column’s G-AL, type in your tentative ‘goals’ but change format to white background and white text so that you are not tempted to mark in things before the months those goals actually ‘start’… change the text to black on white background for each cell as you get past the 30th days… This way you are really only tracking one goal the first month, which should be the focus and primary ONE THING you are doing the first first month to make this new ‘thing’ become a habit. I’ve read online in various places you NEED to focus on ONLY ONE GOAL for a MINIMUM of 21 days til it become a ‘habit’… so DO NOT FORCE YOURSELF TO DO MORE THAN ONE GOAL PER MONTH. You can do the extra the first month if you want, but DO NOT COUNT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT FIRST GOAL THE FIRST MONTH WHEN MARKING THINGS DOWN SO THAT YOU DO NOT OVER-STRESS YOURSELF WITH MULTIPLE GOALS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO ACHIEVE THEM ALL… JUST FOCUS ON ONE GOAL AT A TIME, MAKE IT A HABIT, THEN THE NEXT MONTH ADD A NEW HABIT AND KEEP THE OLD HABIT FROM THE PRIOR MONTH(S) AS DAILY HABIT. IF YOU DO HAPPEN TO FALL OFF AND BREAK A HABIT ONCE, DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT. JUST GET UP, DUST OFF, AND TRY AGAIN THE NEXT DAY. THE GOAL HERE IS TO MAKE YOURSELF DO BETTER THINGS AND HAVE A HEALTHIER, WEALTHIER LIFESTYLE CHANGE, NOT TO BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR NOT ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO ACHIEVE. THESE NEW DAILY HABITS OUGHT TO MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, NOT MAKE YOU FEEL WORSE. IF YOU START GETTING DEPRESSED SINCE YOU ARE NOT ACHIEVING THE GOALS YOU SET FOR YOURSELF, DO NOT LET THAT CONTINUE. I read somewhere the other day that you need to fail about 12 times in a row before you succeed at anything. I believe this is probably true. Changing your lifestyle to be healthier or meeting your goals is a good thing to do, but YOU MUST NOT LET NEGATIVE SELF IMAGE THOUGHTS KEEP YOU FROM ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS!!! You are a great person, and just by trying to even change one thing to improve your lifestyle, you are already doing 99 percent more than most do usually who just go about their lives without many goals. DON’T YOU DARE BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR TRYING TO DO A GOOD THING TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!

If you find doing something 30+ days in a row to be too much, maybe try another way of doing things other than what I’m suggesting in this post. There’s a really great 21 day habit tracer over at http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/2004/goal_sheet.pdf… maybe give it a try instead of or in addition, or as a pre-requisite for trying this thing that I’m trying with the multiple monthly goals… actually that one might be better anyways since it would let you do the same ONE THING over and over and over til you get at least 21 days in a row… which is great. Hell, I might even end up using that instead of this thing I’m starting in the end, lol. I’m just doing the 30 day goals because I know I can accomplish this sort of stuff as I’ve done it before… but hell, yes, it has taken me a few attempts and failures, so please DO NOT beat yourself up if you fail a time or three, or 50… just try, try, and try again. You will get the habit formed eventually. I am proud of you for even trying to meet your new goals at least once, and you should be proud of yourself too!

Remember, ultimately NO MATTER WHAT YOU DECIDE, IT WILL BE THE RIGHT THING… We are all people on this earth — with all of our imperfections. You are ‘perfect’ since you were made in God’s image even if you don’t know it yet or see it. Yes, it is good to make new goals and achieve them, but even if you fail to meet your goal(s) from time time time, you are still made in God’s image, and as such, you are perfect as you are right now…

It only takes a little bit of self love, and seeing the truth behind things to understand this. It’s very difficult to see this sort of truth sometimes, but you need to understand that this sort of truth is truth, and it is beautiful, just as the whole world is if you let it be and stop with the negative self talk, stop with the looking at yourself and the world around you as bad, etc. Stop beating yourself up for being human. None of us is ‘beyond perfection’ but we are all ‘perfect.’ We all have our own path – our own stories, our own missions and quests in life at various stages. Learning self respect and understanding yourself — and not beating yourself up all of the time is THE way to achieve your goals ultimately. Others that don’t have respect for themselves yet because they have not opened their eyes to this truth yet will try to bring you down, and cause your own self image to follow in their footsteps in trying to bring you down, but you should not allow that to happen. Negativity breeds negativity. Try to stop having so much negativity in your life, especially when it comes to looking at your own personal surroundings, and ultimately your own inner self. Maybe one ‘goal’ you should set for yourself is to try to slow down or stop negative ideas, thought patterns, etc. from impacting you… I’ve read on several blogs that some people have accomplished this sometimes. It’s not something I’ve been able to do all the way yet, but might make that a goal one month someday as my ONE monthly goal that I want to turn in to a habit over time. Doing so might be the best ‘goal’ one could ever attempt to achieve because seeing the world as it really is is a good thing to do… not biased by the news media’s dreary tones and hidden messages and agendas… not biased by negative coworker’s sayings bringing you down and making you hate the amazing place you are employed for at the job you might actually like if you could just ignore the negativity they throw at you daily, etc. I find myself entering a ‘happy place’ when I do more things involving my right brain… stuff like taking pictures of asphalt and concrete walls, clouds, trees, dirt, flowers, etc. helps me see the world through a different lens. There is a really great video about this on Ted Talks that I posted to in a previous post… it’s over at http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

I will try to embed the video below, but it doesn’t seem to be working right for some reason, which is why the link above is there.

that sort of thing is one reason I MUST make art related goals some of my 33 goals. I need to find ways to bring art in to my life more as making art allows me to enter that right brain thought pattern more, and enjoy the ‘heaven on earth’ that it causes… It’s the sort of thing why I think artists, or musicians, or any number of others in their own professions can ‘enter the zone’ and the world becomes better for them… I could write a book or library of books on this topic, and may in future posts, but for now will just leave it at this since I’ve already probably gotten far off enough on the topic of this tracker for now, lol. I’m just saying, don’t beat yourself up much… and if you want, making changes in your attitudes and self talk patterns might be one way to do some personal goals if you really want TRUE change in your own life and to make good habits become great life-changing lifestyles for yourself that can very positively impact yourself, and all of those around you… Remember, we are all human beings… and everyone in the history books was too. ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

The 33rd goal really just starts on day 991, so if you want to continue this past first 1000 days, you should take that in to account. Some blogs I’ve read indicate that you need to do one new thing at least 21 days in a row before it’s really a ‘habbit’… I only went up to day 1000 since it seemed like a logical number to go up to… You could theoretically only do 990 days and then start a new 990 days after that, etc. I just figure 1000 is a good goal since it’s easy number to remember… If you get that far you should probably allow yourself a little slack since hell, you just accomplished doing something for over 3 years in a row – great pat on the back!!! 🙂

If you prefer it in Google, here it is (Google’s formatting is not as pretty):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AppC9Gwr9zBIdFBsN1hRWDhQRnhkejBYYTBPSzJfWUE
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Read about a lot of 30 day and 100 day challenges in various places in the blogsphere, but no 1000 day challenges yet… so I’ve decided to create a way to track something like that. The idea is really to do a series of 33 one month challenges and form those challenges in to daily habbits… and use a checkbox type of system to keep yourself in check with all of these challeges. I figure since I screwed up the 90 full days of doing the Power 90 already, this is a new start sort of… but a continuation of that… so the counter starts over sort of, but in a completely new way with much more in the focus than just that 90 day end goal…

Could be something as simple as smiling at someone daily, doing a workout in morning, doing a workout at night, cutting out snacks from diet, cutting out soda from diet, cutting out having seconds at meals, cutting out sweets from diet, or as complex as you want it to be… it doesn’t even have to be focused on health. Maybe you want to give yourself the habbit of doing some thing every day and want a way to just build that in your life…

Anyways, below is the blank tracker for this thing on google docs. Tried to make it so that it tracks days, has check boxes for all 33 challenges for every day even though you would not use all of them til the last month… and also put in dashes on every 7th day since you probably need to build in one day a week that you ‘rest’ and ease up on yourself… after all doing any one thing for 1000 days is a heck of a lot. You could do it every day and not do the one day of rest if you wanted, but really you just like I am human, and made in God’s image (if God exists) so you need to let yourself have one day of rest probably… but hey, if you think you can do something every day for a thousand days without any rest, go for it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AppC9Gwr9zBIdDh0dXAwTlRSckpHVDIwVVE3Q1dQM2c

the excel file above may need to be changed in page setup to make it print right. Below pdf was adjusted with a few changes in that… Sorry that the legend on right doesn’t have 1-33 on each page. That was the original intention. Could probably be fixed with a little tweak here and there.
https://jeffthomann.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/1k-day-challenge.pdf

The idea with the ‘goal for the day’ and the legend as it is is for it to be a write in just like the others are… because every day if you write in your date, goal, and write down in the next box to the goal for the day the goal you completed it becomes more of a positve ego booster type of thing… You right your goals for day down in morning before you try the goal, then write down the goal in the daily notes box after you completed that day’s goal. If you are making it a 30 day challenge thing… do the same goal every day for 30 days, and use the one on habbits as the checkbox for that day, etc. The legend is just a sort of reminder to yourself about what your goals are… in case it gets confusing. This thing is made to be used on a clip board or something similar so that it’s easy to keep track of… but you could just edit it in excel file you update daily or whatever. I like using clip boards and have been doing that with power 90 to track my stuff in addition to this blog and an excel file in my computer. I use all three to track stuff like that since it keeps it more in my brain…

The last few days have been heck on the power 90 goal… with the arm stab thing, and then trying to workout again after that. I’m making up this 1k day tracker to start tracking my own goals in getting healthy and figured it might help others do similar which is why it’s here.

My first goal is probably going to be doing the Power 90 or some similar type of workout in the mornings… Then maybe add habbit 2 as doing workout at night, etc. Up til now I was tracking power 90 and the nightly add ons with handwritten papers on clipboard. I think this sort of tracker will work better and be nice and neat and actual help me keep track of goals better without being sloppy, hard to read, or time consuming to put together.

Not sure on this but some of my 33 goals are going to probably be morning workout, afternoon workout, no snacks, no sweets, no soda, check sugar in morning, check sugar at night, do some writing daily in a journal (not sure if I can make myself do the 3 single space pages that the artist’s way books call for, but might try it… just not sure on it since that’s a lot of writing and that amount of writing eats at free time that might go towards family time r&r time, or workout in evening time… but maybe doing something like one page a day for a month, then two, then finally 3 might make it possible? My hand cramps after writing that much, etc..), drawing a day, 3d model a day, or maybe even something simpler…. no negative thoughts for day, smile at people today, stay focused on one positive thing every day, etc… not sure on all the goals yet, but health goals will likely be my main focus for a while. I know goals will change over time, that’s why this is all fairly blank and just a skeleton right now…

I know I can change my ways to be better and get healthy. I know I can ultimately get to a great goal BMI weight by 1000 days from now. I’m not sure if I’ll start this tracker thing this week or next week. Might aim for starting it on the beginning of the month, but not sure yet.

Some other ideas for my ‘goals’:

MORNING WORKOUT
EVENING WORKOUT
NO S… NO SNACKS, NO SWEETS, NO SECONDS, NO SODAS (MIGHT HAVE TO BREAK THIS IN TO 4 MONTHLY GOALS)
MINIMUM OF ONE SIMPLE 5 MINUTE DRAWING A DAY
WRITE ONE PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY
WRITE A SECOND PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY DAILY
WRITE A THIRD PAGE OF MORNING PAGES WITH ARTIST’S WAY DAILY, AND MAYBE MORE…
MINIMUM OF ONE SIMPLE 10 MINUTE DRAWING A DAY IN ADDITION TO THE 5 MINUTE DRAWINGS
ONE POEM A DAY
MINIMUM OF 10 PHOTOS A DAY
ONE CONCEPT WRITING/DRAWING IN SKETCHBOOK DAILY
ONE PAINTING BASED ON ONE CONCEPT WEEKLY. (MINIMUM ONE HOUR PER DAY FOR 6 DAYS IN A ROW
ONE BLOG POST DAILY?
REMOVE NEGATIVE THOUGHT
ADD POSITIVE THOUGHTS TO YOUR DAY ABOUT AS MANY THINGS AS POSSIBLE… CHANGE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS IN TO POSITIVE ONES. TALLY THEM UP AS YOU COME ACROSS NEGATIVE THOUGHS AND COUNTER EVERY ONE NEGATIVE WITH 3 POSITIVE
LOOK AT NEW ARTWORK DAILY – BLOG ABOUT IT.
DO DISHES
MINIMUM OF 20 PHOTOS A DAY
WALK ON MORNING BREAK AT WORK (NOT SURE ON THIS ONE SINCE I’LL BE DOING THE MORNING/EVENING WORKOUTS)
WALK ON AFTERNOON BREAK AT WORK (NOT SURE ON THIS ONE SINCE I’LL BE DOING THE MORNING/EVENING WORKOUTS)
CREATE ONE DOODLE, SKETCH OR CONCEPT ON LUNCH BREAK… OR ALTERNATIVELY DO ONE 3-5 MINUTE SPEED DRAWING IN THAT TIME SINCE LUNCH BREAKS ARE ONLY 30 MINUTES
PROTIEN AS 20% OR SO OF MEAL AT EVER MEAL (EGGS OR DELI MEAT MOST LIKELY IF NOT SOMETHING ELSE), 3 MEALS A DAY
COUNT CARBS — NO MORE THAN 55 PER MEAL!!!! 3 MEALS A DAY.
CHECK SUGAR IN MORNING
CHECK SUGAR IN EVENING
GRATITUDE JOURNAL – WRITE 5 THINGS YOU ARE THANKFUL, HAPPY, OR APPRECIATIVE ABOUT DAILY.
NO SIX DOLLAR, SIXTEEN DOLLAR, OR SIXTY DOLLAR SH!T5 (don’t eat out)

My suggestion, or at least one thing I’ve done to modify my own personal copy that I’ll use to log this thing in my computer is to add new row above day one and then in the 1-33 edit formatting to type sideways… then in daily goal for first 30 days make the content of those fields equal what is in that field (g3 on mine but really depends on how you edit on yours…) That way you only have to write the one goal out if you are doing this in computer instead of on clipboard once, and then can just add notes later freely, etc… Since it’s a spreadsheet you can also add whatever you want to new rows and columns… track an entire lifetime, add in new columns for sugar level checks, blood pressure checks, etc. Heck you could even make it in to a daily calander with to do lists since you’ll look at it every day.. put birthdays on there as a yearly goal so you get cards to who you need to. Put change oil on car every x months, etc.

High calorie per minute exercises and workouts

http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/articles/2010/01/kettlebell-training-burns-1200-calories-per-hour.html – Kettlebell 1200 per hour!


http://www.livestrong.com/article/224735-number-of-calories-burned-per-activity/

http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=2666&category=13

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/calories-olympic-athlete_n_1735846.html#slide=1324072

modified no s diet

I’m contemplating eventually starting a modified NO S diet.

The rules would be, if I start it, NO, WHEN I START IT:
– no snacks
– no sweets
– no sugary foods
– no seconds
– no soda (or coffee, or anything other than tea or water usually — even then, no tea during meals since I read somewhere that tea has some chemical (riboflavin or something like that) which causes you to not digest food as well as you should – tea is fine between meals but not during meals because of that?..)
– no salty foods
– no six, sixteen dollar or sixty dollar shits (in other words, no eating out at restaurants, cafeterias, or overpriced places like that where the cost per meal is usually about six dollars or more per plate, which usually just results in you overeating and having to go use the toilet an hour or two later — you paid sixty dollars for that shit at the steakhouse)
– no steakhouses
– no saltines (I’m the type that could put a whole pack of saltines in a bowl of soup if I allow myself too… guess this falls under no salty foods, but maybe it could be a new rule – no soup?… )
– no salsa (I tend to overeat at Mexican restaurants, etc.)
– no ‘sleeping in’
– no ‘staying up late’ (need to go to bed by 9 or 10 PM instead of by 1:30 AM, etc.)
– no ‘sorry’ – in otherwords got to stay focused on positive things and not looking negatively at things I have not accomplished yet… and if/when I do falter and get off course, get up, brush off, and continue onwards instead of getting sullen and feeling sorry for myself or whatever. Got to get rid of the negativity in my life since that just drowns me and snowballs in to depression ultimately. Can’t let that happen any more.

except on Sunday for Supper.

Sunday will be the ‘rest’ day for the workouts, so this should work nicely if I can do it. It will take a lot of willpower to not do snacks. I’ve become too used to having them… It’ll also take a lot of willpower to go without soda and caffiene since I’ve made diet soda my ‘way of life’ since getting diagnosed with diabetes, but I think I can make this change eventually and WANT to make this change. Goal is probably to start it Monday, but we’ll see.

I guess I can call this the NoS 2WO diet – No S, Two Work Outs a day.

the witch doctor’s brew cabinet is open…

Between watching Dr. Oz and listening to John Tesh and doing some reading… I’ve started adding spices to my unsalted sunflowers these days. This is being done to help stop inflammation, lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, etc.

Spices in the witch doctor’s cabinet at this time:

Tumeric, Curry, Garlic Powder, Cinnamon, and Ginger. Out of those I think tumeric is the ‘wonder drug’ that does the best, so I add it to the stuff most often, usually with one or two of the others.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-662-TURMERIC.aspx?activeIngredientId=662&activeIngredientName=TURMERIC

I also use flax seed in cereal in the mornings somedays, but not every day. Here’s a little tip I bet you didn’t know… Both sunflower seeds and flax seeds should be refrigerated to keep them good for longer periods of time. Weird, I know, especially since the Hy-Vee here in town stores there unsalted sunflower seeds in tubes that are not in the refrigerator section. I guess maybe the tubes might be air tight, so that might be part of the reason for that?…

Diet Quotes

I come across various little quips and quotes the more I read about diet and excercise in various places online and offline. Decided it’s time to start a list. I’ll more to this later as I find more.
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Flu Shot Q&A:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/flushot.htm

Why do some people not feel well after getting the flu shot?
The most common side effect of the flu vaccine in adults is soreness at the spot where the shot was given, which usually lasts less than two days. The soreness is often caused by a person’s immune system making protective antibodies to the killed viruses in the vaccine. These antibodies are what allow the body to fight against flu. The needle stick may also cause some soreness at the injection site. According to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), rare symptoms include fever, muscle pain, and feelings of discomfort or weakness. If these problems occur, they are very uncommon and usually begin soon after the shot and last 1-2 days.

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Chronic Cardio Links

http://fitnessforfunction.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/chronic-cardio/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio-2/#axzz2979kFXvU

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread63751.html

http://crossfitmeanstreets.com/2010/09/08/chronic-cardio-is-forcing-your-body-to-kill-you-and-how-you-can-save-yourself/

http://paleohacks.com/questions/81844/what-is-chronic-cardio#axzz2976c86fS

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread67113.html

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-you-shouldnt-burn-more-than-4000-calories-a-week-through-exercise/#axzz2979kFXvU

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio/#axzz2979kFXvU
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Quick tip: try to get at least 30% of your total calories from protein because in a Danish study… People who got 30% of their calories from protein lost twice as much weight as people who ate less than 15% of their calories from protein and here’s why… Your body burns the most calories when digesting protein.

(use meat/fish for protien when possible – some vegan possibilities do exist, but it’s probably best to go with lean meat since it’s about as much ‘protien’ as you can get.. don’t go with protien shakes/bars after working out if you can help it because that’s processed food, and processed food is typcially worse for you than ‘real’ food because the processing drains some nutrients out… cheese/eggs is another ok food source… but watch it since cheese can be high fat — the process that creates cheese drains most carbs from cheese, which is why cheese is actually a diabetic friendly snack (unless your sugar is low and you need to spike it to get back to where sugar level needs to be, in which case a glass of milk or juice is better – milk has about 10 g of carbs per 8 oz serving. Juice has a lot more, and if you are really low is faster acting than milk because of that… also, as far as milk goes, skim or 1% is better than 2% or higher percentages milke like whole milk – reason is that fat content stops insulin from working… which is why type II diabetes exists in the first place… more fat in your body and food = slower time for your blood to absorb the carbs you throw at it to increase sugar levels).)
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A positive attitude is very important for successful weight loss and weight management. To lose weight permanently, you must make a commitment to gradually adopt a healthier way of life.


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Flaxseed vs Fish Oil Pills — the solution… Take both if you can afford it.

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20080912/flaxseed-oil-pills-vs-fish-oil-pills

http://www.genesmart.com/pages/fish_flax_confusion/85.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/404266-flaxseeds-vs-fish-oil/

http://blogs.menshealth.com/bellyoff-nutritionist/fish-oil-vs-flax-oil-which-is-best/2011/02/11/
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http://www.mikemahler.com/online-library/articles/fat-loss/maxwell-sledgehammer-workout.html

The mechanics of the sledge swing are the exact opposite of the KB Swing: the effort is bringing the sledge down with as much force as possible. If you want an extra good workout, hold at the bottom of the handle, fists touching, and use a large, windmill-like overhead stroke to engage as much musculature as possible

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Caffiene is bad for you!
http://www.livestrong.com/article/282235-how-do-i-avoid-caffeine-withdrawal/

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/mn5.php

http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2008/10/28/avoid-caffeine/

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Kettlebell tip: Get a stronger grip so as to avoid neck pain…

With the momentum of the swing, the exerciser is able to endure flexion and extension of the arms, without pain and can work an often under respected asset: the grip. When the grip is weak, the forearm is weak. Then the elbow and also the shoulder, which leads to neck pain. Point being: Don’t have a weak grip.

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Diet Soda is bad for you:
http://www.wnho.net/new_aspartame_studies.htm

http://www.streetdirectory.com/food_editorials/health_food/healthy_eating/your_diet_cola_is_killing_you.html
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Determine your BMI
There are several ways of measuring your ideal body weight. One of the most popular methods to gauge whether or not you are overweight is the body mass index (BMI). The BMI uses a mathematical formula that measures both a person’s height and weight in determining obesity. To calculate your BMI, multiply your weight by 703, and divide the answer by your height in inches. Divide this figure by your height again.

(Weight in Pounds x 703) / (Height in Inches) = BMI

For example, a 250-pound person at 5’10″ would have a BMI of 35.86. People with BMIs of 25 and above are considered to be overweight. Having a body mass index over 30 places you at risk for developing obesity-related medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. A BMI over 40 indicates that a person is morbidly obese.

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The President’s challenge isn’t just for kids…
https://www.presidentschallenge.org/challenge/adult.shtml

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Caffiene has an impact on blood sugar! No wonder diet soda is not good for you, and coffee is/was slowly killing me (did have a couple of cups today – mixed sugar free hot chocolate in with it, so asking for major trouble — and now it’s the end of the day and am feeling that major trouble… caffiene headache… ouch… if you’ve never had a low sugar incident from diabetes, imagine the same sort of sensation as caffiene headache but more dehydration – like the front of forehead from temple to temple ‘feels like a dried sponge looks’ … some don’t feel that way when low/high, but when I’m low that’s how I feel.)

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/blood-sugar/AN01804

http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20050309/caffeine-tied-to-blood-sugar-problems

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Dirt Cheap Weight Set – learn to recycle! 🙂
http://fitsupermom.com/at-home-improvements/
http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=17&item_pk=19008&p=1
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http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-home-or-gym-fullbody-workout.html – dumbbell only full body workout

http://amerryrogue.blogspot.com/2012/05/tractor-tires-cinder-blocks-sledge.html – Tractor Tires and Cinder blocks
===
Kettle Bells are suppossed to be an awesome way to burn calories and work out… Going to post some interesting links about them here:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/01/08/kettlebell-swing/
====
http://life.familyeducation.com/foods/weight/46752.html

Make a fist and observe the size of it. This is about the size of your stomach.

…A fistful is still plenty of food to sustain your life, give you energy, release excess fat stores, look great, feel great, and get healthier.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/weight-loss-success-habits_n_1348488.html#s372882&title=Brian_AFTER

Strategy #1: Be Very Specific
When we make goals that are vague, like “I want to lose weight,” we set ourselves up to fail.

Motivation happens when your brain detects a difference between where you are and where you want to be. When you are specific about your goal (I want to lose 10 pounds), that difference is clear, and your brain starts throwing resources (attention, memory, effort, willpower) at the problem. A clear target looks something like this: “I want to weigh 135 pounds. I weigh 155 now, so that’s a difference of 20 pounds.”

Being specific gives you clarity because you’ve spelled out exactly what success looks like. That means more motivation — and better odds of success.

Strategy #2: Create An OK-To-Eat Plan
Faced with unexpected temptations — the dessert menu, the catered work lunch — we end up eating things that sabotage our weight-loss goals. The best way to guarantee you make the right choices is to create an “if-then” plan:
“If the dessert menu arrives, I’ll order coffee.”
“If I am at a business lunch, I’ll have a salad.”
Studies suggest that coming up with safe-to-eat plans makes you two to three times more likely to reach your diet goals.

Strategy #3: Track Your Success
To stay clear about that gap between where you want to go and where you are now, monitor your progress. Keep getting on that scale; mark the days you exercise on a calendar.

Another thing: When you think about the progress you’ve made, stay focused on how far you have to go, rather than how far you’ve come. If you want to drop 20 pounds, and you’ve lost 5 so far, keep your thoughts on the 15 that remain. When we dwell too much on how much progress we’ve made, it’s easy to feel a premature sense of accomplishment and start to slack off.

Strategy #4: Be A Realistic Optimist
As much as we want to believe otherwise, losing weight isn’t easy. It turns out that it’s important to accept this.

Believing you will succeed is key, but believing you will succeed easily (what I call “unrealistic optimism”) is a recipe for failure. Take it from the women, all obese, who enrolled in a weight-loss program in one study. Those who thought they could lose weight easily lost 24 pounds less than those who knew it would be hard. The successful dieters put in more effort, planned in advance how to deal with problems, and persisted when it became difficult.

So don’t try to tamp down your worries — they can help prepare you for shape-up challenges.

Strategy #5: Strengthen Your Willpower
The capacity for self-control is like a muscle: It varies in strength from person to person and moment to moment. Just as your biceps can feel like jelly after a workout, your willpower “muscle” gets tired when you overtax it.

To strengthen it, pick any activity that requires you to override an impulse (such as sitting up straight when your impulse is to slouch), and add that to your daily routine. And take baby steps. Instead of going junk-free overnight, begin by eliminating, say, those chips you eat by the bag, and substitute them with a fruit or vegetable.

Hang in there, and sticking to your diet will become easier because your capacity for self-control will grow.

=======

====

When someone starts a new exercise program, they often experience muscle soreness. The more intense and “unfamiliar” the program, the more intense the muscle soreness.

This soreness is most prevalent 24 to 48 hours after each workout. In the first few weeks of a new program, soreness is the body trying to “protect and defend” the effected or targeted tissue. Exercise physiologists refer to this as delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.

This type of soreness is thought to be caused by tissue breakdown or microscopic tears in muscle tissue.

When this happens the body protects the tissue. The muscle becomes inflamed and slightly swollen with

fluid retention. This temporary retention of fluid can result in a 3- to 4-pound weight gain within a few

weeks of a new program. Keep in mind that muscle soreness is not necessarily a reflection of how hard you

worked. In fact, some people feel no signs of muscle soreness, yet will experience the muscle protection mechanisms of water retention and slight swelling.

Most people are motivated enough to put up with this temporary muscle soreness. Yet, many, especially those who really need immediate weight loss to keep them motivated in those first couple of weeks become

discouraged and quit!

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http://www.experienceproject.com/question-answer/Which-Would-You-Rather-Be:-A-Hungry-Free-Man-Or-A-Contented-Slave/582714

There was a dog who was bound on a chain, before a butchers shop. Came along a wolf, looked at him and asked: “Now, how did you get that well fed?” The dog asnwers “I have to guard that door behind me, and get a slab of meat every day for it.” The wolf replied “I could gaurd a door too…seems to be profitable.” Dog says “well, you definitely should, why not ask my master?” Wolf looks at dog, noticing the neck of the dog being almost naked and sore from the chain, and when he proposes the dog to come for a walk,. the dog can’t he’s chained to the wall. So wolf says: “Sorry, but I’ll be rather free and hungry than fat and chained…”

————
http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8787

Giving it 100% is way easier than 97% because that little “just this once” monster sneaks in there and creats a battle every time no matter if he wins that round or not!

JUST DO IT!!!
No excuses. No more thinking about it. Not tomorrow. It’s simple. Just Do It…..and do it NOW!

it’s what you do consistently day in and day out that will matter most in the long run

leave out all the self berating! You don’t deserve it because perfection is only an illusion…everyone slips up now and then.

It doesn’t matter if you fall flat on your face. What matters is what you do next.

let it go, and move along.

Being hungry is NOT an emergency red-alert situation. There are people who would like you to think it is. Many of them are somehow involved in selling food.

Habits take time to form. There is no known way to expedite or rush this process.

“Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.”
W. Somerset Maugham

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https://www.facebook.com/nosdiet

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill

So don’t eat when you’re hungry. Don’t eat when you’re depressed. Don’t eat when you’ve seen a good number on the scale and you think you can afford a few extra calories. Eat when it’s time to eat, just like thin people did for thousands of years.

====
when you are sore, work out some more! Working out again helps get the heart and lungs pumping which means circulating your blood around to remove the lactic acid built up on your muscles from previous exercise.

====
Great Abs are made in the Kitchen.

You can’t out-train bad nutrition.

I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

There are just three rules and one exception:
No Snacks
No Sweets
No Seconds
Except (sometimes) on days that start with “S”
That’s it. Do that and you’ll probably lose most if not all of your excess weight.

==========

insulin + available protein = 90% reduction in proteolysis, while insulin + no available protein = 45% reduction in proteolysis.</blockquote>


And here’s the takeaway:

Every time you stimulate insulin production by eating carbohydrates, you need to eat some complete protein with it—or instead of rebuilding your muscles and tissues, your body will continue to disassemble itself to get that protein. And the higher your blood sugar spikes, the more your body will disassemble itself anyway. Are you seeing the problem? When you eat, insulin signals your body to stop eating itself…but only if you’ve eaten protein, and only if your blood sugar isn’t spiking.

Every time you eat candy or drink a soda by itself, not only are you signaling your body to store fat…you’re disassembling your own muscle.

It’s even worse. That ‘healthy’ mid-afternoon apple or orange, to keep your blood sugar up? Same problem. And remember the food pyramid? Those “7-11 servings of heart-healthy whole grains” we’re all supposed to be eating every day? How are you going to stuff eleven servings into three meals?

You’re not: you’re going to snack.

That’s what we’re advised: never, ever let yourself get hungry. Keep your bloodstream filled with sugar and insulin at all times! So that’s what we do. Crackers, bagels, muffins, corn chips, rice cakes, cookies, danishes…all low-fat, of course.

And, even worse, low-protein. Being grain and sugar-based, snack foods contain little protein—and the protein they do contain is incomplete. (Corn and wheat are deficient in lysine, one of the essential amino acids.) If your body is short on any essential amino acid, it will still have to disassemble itself to get the one it needs, regardless of how much of all the others are available.

Every time you eat high-sugar, protein-deficient food—even whole fruit and “heart-healthy complex carbohydrates”—you’re making yourself fatter and weaker.

Conclusion:

Snacking Makes You Fat, And Snacking Makes You Weak.

This explains a lot, doesn’t it? Why so many joggers can pound out hundreds of miles and still squeeze up muffin tops? Why so many cyclists can spin for thousands of miles and still have to stuff a beer gut into their Lycra? Why even the skinny ones often look like famine victims—not like strong, healthy, capable humans? And why you never look like the people in the magazine ads, no matter how long you spend on the hamster wheels at the gym?

This helps explain why so many vegans (especially raw vegans) appear scrawny and malnourished. Fruit might have some nutrients in it, but it’s still essentially protein-less sugar.

… Stop eating birdseed (‘grains’) and diesel fuel (‘vegetable oil’).
Start eating real food.

“No one can hurt you without your permission.” – Ghandi

————
the application of the information is the key to success:

Ingredient #1: Think Differently
Ingredient #2: Believe Differently
========================
Interesting link about Marathon Monks who do a 1000 day challenge of their own sort…
http://halikhan.org/blog/general/marathon-monks-and-the-1000-day-challenge/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaih%C5%8Dgy%C5%8D – another link about the monk’s challenge
——————
http://www.bikramyogavancouver.com/blog/post333.php – interesting article on a guy who did 1000 days of yoga.
—-
http://cookdingskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/1000-day-challenge.html – article about the ‘Lenten Challenge’ – sort of a 1000 day challenge for martial artists… which is sort of based on the Buddhist monk challenge listed above.

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URBAN NINJA LINKS
http://www.urbanninjablog.com/ – interesting little article on living in Thailand for under 1000 dollars a month!

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Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen.

——————————————
That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is more than a cliché with P90X—it’s your life.

Short-term goals are nice. It’s one way to stay in the game. But if you want to make a worldwide impact, then put your energy into the long-term goals.

“I don’t want it”

http://twitter.com/JohnTesh/statuses/212294022851592192

John Tesh
‏@JohnTesh 11 Jun
Learn to use the diet phrase “I don’t want to,” instead of “I can’t.” It makes you feel empowered instead of deprived. ‪#TESHsays‬

I’ve been trying to follow this advice lately and it does seem to help a LOT. John Tesh actually does have some interesting advice on occassion.

Something else that I’ve been doing to help along with the dieting is sort of ‘marking’ symbols along the path to help me stay on track. It’s sort of like putting little magical sign posts along the way where there’s evil and telling myself to get back on track. A few years back I did something like this but used cross bones and skulls on little pieces of paper that I stuck on vending machines, on gas station since convenience stores are a major temptation to eat bad, etc. This time round I’m using little targets instead of crossbones for a couple of reasons… First, ‘staying on target’ is a more positive message than the skull and cross bones. Also, it seemed too much like ‘marking my territory’ as a gang sign with crossbones, especially since the Pirate was my high school’s mascot. The targets really do help, and if they are placed strategically, only I know they are there since most everyone else just ignores them, doesn’t see them, etc. At gas stations, the little holsters above the tank where they put credit card applications is a nice little spot for this. Inside, the corners of candy and snack shelves is another place. On vending machines, if the thing is taped way back near the back where no one looks, no one but you notices. The crossbones on vending machine I put in the cafeteria at work 2 years ago is still there. It doesn’t always phase me, but maybe if I put a target up there too it will.