Keeping the belly full and the mind occupied

Well, it never ceases to surprise me. How easy it is to eat WAY too many calories eating the wrong foods, how hard it is to get enough calories when eating the right. Amazing. Fill your gut with greens, veggies, fruits and unprocessed meats and it takes alot to get the calories in that your body burns. Right now, not including walking, my frame should be burning around 3500 calories to just get from point a to point b in the run of 24 hours. A larger frame, or a fatter butt, pick one may it suit yea, needs extra just to go about its business. Right now I am struggling to get 2k of quality calories into me. Now you may say, that's the point ain't it? Well no, the point is to lose weight slowly, to maintain an energy level, to not become sluggish, lethargic or disillusioned, that's the point.

So, what to do? Well, the simple solution is a protein powder supplement to get those extra calories. That's the easy way, but not the way I would prefer. The other option is an extra meal, which would likely be the route I take. It makes more sense to me. You keep the body digesting throughout the day and you get that metabolic burn increase that is what we want.

I have a little junk yesterday, not enough to screw my calories or suddenly make me blow up like Mrs. Puff, but not the kind of healthy, close to vine, just out of the ground, not far removed from grazing kind of food intake I want. That being said, those three Canada Day BBQed hot dogs were AWESOME...lol, there's something about singed and charred processed meat on a fluffy processed bun that is just sooooooo good ;)

Well off to work with me. Thanks for listening!

Kicking back!

Well I feel GREAT!!!

No really, I do... the dizziness and fatigue of yesterday is a thing of, well, yesterday. I woke up this morning feeling awesome, no aches, no pains just awake and rearing to go. It makes me wonder about before you know. I used to wake up achy, not really rested, I just wrote it all off as being overweight and out of shape and of course, the ol' catch all of being older. Now though, I have to wonder, how much of it was blood pressure related?

117/78 this morning by the way.... YAY!

I am just hoping and praying that this keeps up and please god I will be allowed to do more than just walk within two weeks. I am SOOOOOOOO ready for the gym, SOOOOOO ready to spend a week or more in absolute agony while my body adjusts to doing things it hasn't been doing in a long long time. SOOOOOOOOOOO ready to see the flab turn back to muscle and just feel good about myself.

Speaking of that. I have been thinking a little lately about body image and our perception of ourselves in our own skin. You often hear that women are bombarded by skinny women everywhere they turn, and that it helps reinforce what for many is an unrealistic body type. That's so true, and I am not for one moment trying to lessen that impact. I have also often heard that men aren't effected by this. Well, this man surely is. I have heard it said that men don't care, that they can let it all hang out so to speak and it's really matters not a lick to them. Well, to this man, it surely does. I mean, great if you have that kind of spirit that allows you to not care. Perhaps that is the truly noble way to be, perhaps to be otherwise is a weakness? So be it, truth told, I would be mortified to go swimming at a public pool, I would actually wear a t-shirt all the time if I were on a vacation to the south, I don't even really like my wife seeing me totally nekkid, and that's just wrong. However, when we watch TV we see trim and fit men everywhere, you don't see any Gillette commercials where a guy is stood in front of the mirror with his chest hair all matted from the shower and his beer belly hanging out over the top of his towel, you don't see any beer commercials where the guy is wheezing and huffing his way out of the beer store to squeeze behind the wheel of his 1996 Hyundai... nope, more often then not, its a guy with perfect teeth, hair, pecs and a 6 pack. That's the way it is, and that's the way it will stay, cause hey, selling the image works!

So, rather than try and change the psyche, I will change to body. I will never be the guy in the Gillette commercial, but I will be as comfortable as that guy.

Been talking to a few people over the past weeks. Many of them like me are morbidly obese like me... for the matter of clarification, here's a reference to what makes you morbidly obese...

* Underweight = <18.5
* Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
* Overweight = 25-29.9
* Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
* Any BMI > 40 is severe obesity
* A BMI of 40.0–49.9 is morbid obesity
* A BMI of >50 is super obese

... my BMI currently is 41.7, which makes me morbidly obese. There are a ton of BMI calculators out there, give it whirl, you might be surprised. Oh, before I continue on my current train of thought, here's a little aside. For those of you out there right now, and you know you are doing it, that are looking at this and saying something like, well, I'm bigged boned, they don't take that into account, yada yada...well... they do.... thats why there is a 10 point range, and with the exception of...

* highly muscular adults;
* adults who have a very lean body build;
* young adults who have not reached full growth; and
* adults over 65 years of age.

... it's a perfectly reliable and accurate tool, so get over it, if it says you are morbidly obese then you are morbidly obese, get off your fat ass, stop justifying and making excuses and do something about it rather than fret about the number. Anyhoo... back to our regular programming.

Anyway, I have been asked, what does it take to lose the weight. The answer folks is surprisingly simple. Eat less calories than you burn in a run of a day. Wow, earth shattering huh?? Seriously though, that's it, that's all there is to it. Now, there are extremes and degrees to how you do this. For me it's meant cutting out all takeout, it's meant not frying anything, it's meant portion control and it's meant eating stuff that is a near to its natural state as it can be. In other words, no frozen dinners, no canned foods, nothing pre-packaged or processed in anyway when and where possible. It's also meant drinking about 4-5 liters of water a day and walking everyday. For someone else it could just mean cutting out deserts, or drinking less alcohol. Really everyone is different and what works for one might or might not work for another.

The thing is. If you are like me, and are morbidly obese, then just cutting back a little may not cut it. I will go so far as to say, in my opinion, minor tweeks are a cop-out and the tendancy to slide or slip is far far worse if you are not ready to make a 100% commitment. If you are continuing to drink something, or eat something, even in smaller quanities when you KNOW it's going to put weight on you, or isn't the best choice for the goals you have set, if you are doing that based on some thought that you like it too much to give it up entirly, then you are weak and you aren't ready to make the changes you really need to to become healthy and correct your weight. This isn't a kinda sorta thing, it's deadly serious, and it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but your weight will kill you, it will kill you as surely as a bullet to the brain, just not as fast. You will get diabetes, you will get high blood pressure, you will develope back problems, you will develop mobility issues, you will be prone to infection... you will DIE, the food you are eating will kill you. This is NOT melodrama, this is NOT being too serious. If your health, your life and your happiness isn't more meaningful to you then a bottle of beer or a cheeseburger, then please, have at it, but if you want to live a full life where you aren't concerned about the possibility of not being able to fit into a seat, or if you can climb that hill to enjoy the view, or if this is the day that the clothes you have been wearing no longer fits, then change, change everything that got you here and change it now. It can be done and if you want it, NEED it, then you can do it 100%.

Rant over... back to work...lol....

Odds and Ends

A couple of quick points before I go to bed.

My calories need to increase. Yes yes, i sound like a broken record, but its 100% true, they do need to get bumped. I also need to increase my protein intake. So, the solution to both problems? Returning to my nightly protein shake. I love those things and I am actually looking very forward to having them again. There was a time I would come home from work and be craving that smoothie, that time has come again. Yay for protein!!

Also, its become clear that I have to start taking a multi-vitamin. I knew that anyway but it was affirmed by what I have been seeing on my Fitday journal. I was looking at some tonight and I think I am just going to go with a typical Mans Multi. Once I start in the gym I will also be back to taking the creatine and glutamine and very likely glucosamine. My shoulder has really been bugging my lately, calcification of the joint was suspected but seems its just age and wear and tear. I have to be careful about that. I also expect to be in the gym sooner than I had originally speculated. I am really feeling that good about where I am now and where I feel I can be in a short time. Amazing...

I wanted to also say how much easier this has been with the support of my wife. When I last did this I had a lot of support from friends and family, but this time it feels different. To have someone to talk to this stuff about every day, to help remind me to make my entries and the encourage me... it makes it so much easier to stay focused and on target.

Well, I think thats about it for now. Thanks for dropping by!

Label reading and sodium

Well, after our walk this evening Dee and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. We ended up just cruising the aisles and reading the labels on a bunch of stuff. At first blush, sodium is EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING. In large amounts. In using my FitDay food calculator I was noticing a fair amount of sodium and was wondering where the heck all that crap was coming from, the sort answer is EVERYWHERE. Crazy...

We ended up in the cereal aisle. Now I am a HUGE fan of Vector Cereal. It's marketed as a healthy alternative, a meal replacement even, and supposed to have a ton of wholesome goodness in it... well, you know what else it has, a BUCKETLOAD of sodium! 365 mgs of the stuff to be exact, and thats before you add the milk, which by the way has, you guess it, sodium as well! What was even more surprising to me was when I compared the Vector to a kids cereal. You would expect the kids cereal to have not so much goodness and more calories via sugar. Surprise, not so... the kids cereal had half the calories in the same serving, only 25 mgs and the actual nutritional values were much the same. Crazy, and then, shreaded wheat... top dog by far, more fibre, no sodium and low calories. Needless to say the shreaded wheat was what came home with me!

Lesson to be learned? Read labels, understand that what you may believe about a food and whats in it may be very far removed from the truth.

Quickie post on calorie intake

Well, one thing I have learned over the past couple of days is that I really need to increase my caloric intake. Ideally I would like to be up around 2000 calories daily right now, until I start in the gym in any event, at which time I should boost that by 500 or so, protein calories mostly, easily accomplished with a shake!

It's amazing to me how little calories can be eaten in a day and still feel satisfied. So far, just 10 days in, I have zero desire to cheat or anything. My business partner actually left a bag of cookies at the office , the bastard, lol, and I had zero cravings for them despite them being RIGHT there large as life... this is a HUGE step for me.

On last thing, it looks like I will have my pics and measurements up this weekend as well... still not looking forward to the pics... blah...

And finally, I am going to leave you with a pic of my main man Gabe. He started in kindergarten today and I really couldn't be prouder of him... HE is my inspiration, along with his brother and my sweetie...

Later folks!

Oh gross

Ye gads.... I knew I was bad, but man, this is just crazy!!! For shits and grins I decided to log what would be a typical Tuesday for me. Here in Canada Tuesday is known as Twoonie Tuesdays at KFC. I would get two of these, which amounted to 2 legs, 2 wings and 2 servings of fries. I would eat one for lunch and another a little later. Typically in the morning prior to heading into the office I would either finish Gabes Sandwich or have one of my own. On the way into work we would grab coffees at Timmies and more often than not a box of timbits. That night when I got home we would have a late supper, and during the summer a BBQ wouldn't be out of the question. Typically again we would BBQ a pack of wieners first, then steaks. We would have say baked spuds with ranch dressing and a heaping pile of mushrooms, onions and peppers sauteed. Then later than night it wouldn't be a stretch to have a big bag of Doritos with a onion dip. Ice cream is not unheard of as well...

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY shit, its just sickening when you lay it all out there like that... sick sick sick... NO MORE... this Fitday program is going to make me SO responsible for what goes into my body... wow... I am floored. Floored that I could eat that in a day and NOT think it would affect me, floored that I had gotten to a state of denial so thorough and complete that it would allow me to function like that... wow... kick in the ass??? Oh hell yeah.... this will NEVER happen again, it can't, I'll die... literally, I will die, intakes like that will kill me as sure as a bullet to the brain will kill me...

Folks, if you eat fastfood, if you eat crap... do yourself a favor and enter a fitday journal for ONE day and see what it gets you... it could be the best thing you have EVER done...

Now I am going to go and shake my head a little more... and bear this shame...