the problem with daily calories....

I had a friend recently visit me. He had started using his bike to get to and from school. It was a fifteen mile round trip and a good part of it is up hill. He was a bit frustrated that in spite of his new daily bike ride he has not lost any weight. We talked about what he was eating, when he was my roommate he seemed to live off of hot dogs and chili. He told me that his diet was poor consisting of mostly Taco Bell. I told him that was his problem. Then he told me that is was usually his only meal all day long. It was probably around a two thousand calorie meal.
I did not know what to tell him two thousand calories is about what a person should be taking in right? Well I thought about it for a long time. I realized that it is a mistake to think about caloric intake in terms of a whole day. It is better to think about calories in terms of the next few hours. If someone skips breakfast and lunch then has a big dinner this confuses the body. See after not having the fuel it needs for the morning and afternoon the body may go into famine mode. Meaning that since there is no plentiful source of calories, it will automatically save the calories, this is bad because it gets stored as fat. Another down fall is that in the evening he will not do enough activity to use up two thousand calories, the excess calories will also become fat. My buddy was shooting himself in his own foot because of his poor diet. I now think of food in terms of the next few hours. When I need the extra fuel for swimming or wieghtlifitng I use a more generous portion of my daily intake. I try to divide up my daily calories for what I need. I always pack a snack when I go to the beach to restore glycogen and have fule for the walk home for example. So this way of thinking had helped me immensely to understand food and its proper consumption.

Learn from others....

Okay I am down another four pounds. So I am optimistic. Things are going good. I have reached the point that when I don't work out I feel like I need to . I used to be able spend a whole day sitting at a desk or playing video games. Now when I don't do the exercise I feel restless. I realize that I'm making a lifestyle change and I like the possibilities of the new lifestyle. I am watching National body challenge and I am learning a lot. But not from the host , Im learning from the families. I see their negative attitudes and realize that I am the same way sometimes. I believe that people who fail at their attempt to live a healthy lifestyle, don't understand that they have to give up things they love, and replace it with new things they love. I love the beach. I want to surf that is my goal.
I guess one thing that is really affecting me is how people on these shows are starting out enthusiastically but losing steam after a few weeks. They get such a negative attitude towards eating right. Being someone who used to eat fast food almost everyday. I can say that I dont miss it. ha ha ha ha .Well I havent worked out yet, but I do plan on my walk to the beach and doing the swim.

this weeks progress

Allright over the period of two week I have lost six pounds. That is eleven total since I started this blog three weeks ago. My fitness advisor Peter Gunz told me that nutrition is the most important element to living a healthy lifestyle. He is gives advice on fitness on his blog. http://web.mac.com/peter_gunz/Site/Fitness_Tips/Fitness_Tips.html. You are what you eat.

Juice...

uI have to say that I am a huge fan of the Jack Le Lane Juicer. It is a convenient way to get a few servings of vegetables in. I try not to juice fruits because of the high sugar content. I can get a good amount of juice from carrots , tomatoes and celery. I also like to add ginger. So I asked my friend how to count servings from juice, she told me that it is counted in ounces like two or three ounces is a serving. So why do i juice, because I like it, but I also have a hard time taking in enough vegetables, I don't like to eat them. Carrots for example hurt my stomach for some reason but when I juice them they dont bother me.

Thirty Minutes of Cardio.

My own worst enemy....

For some reason today I felt that my efforts have yielded little fruit. While I was walking I thought about how people have been telling me that I look slimmer. But for some reason I tell myself that they are just being nice. Or that I look slimmer because of the way I am wearing my hair. I think the sometimes my self perception is a bad thing. I think that I have hit points in the past where I was not making as much progress as I would have liked to and simply gave up. But tonight I went to a baseball game with my father and brothers. We took pictures and I noticed that I am looking a bit more vertical and not so horizontal. I could see my progress, I am smaller. The results of my efforts are noticeable . I guess I will have to learn to keep going inspite of my own discouragement.

walked 30 minutes

Why I dont want to work out sometimes...

Like many people I have done the whole I want to work out song and dance every year. Inspired by shows like the biggest loser I would engage in a week or two of rigorous exercise. But I would lose steam and slump back into my old ways. Today as I was walking back from the beach, I thought about some of my friends who just started gym memberships. One of whom told me that they have not been there in two weeks. I have been on a consistent exercise program for the last few months. I thought about what has stopped me from doing this before. I think that answer lies in that fact that I was overzealous. I was basically going from doing nothing to working out everyday. This was foolish, my body retaliated and would get really sore. After a week or two of torturing myself. I would take the sit on the couch option. One of my friends told me that initially we need to build up the ability and tolerance to work out. I started slowly with twenty minute walks and light weights. After about a month of light workouts I started to step it up. My body composition is changing, and I can handle more strenuous workouts now.

walked 4.4 miles
swam 30 minutes

the war is made up of small battles...

I realized that reaching my ultimate goal takes making good decisions. I often ask myself am I heading toward my goal or away from it. I have many a times put down those oreo's and traded it for a plum or some other sweet fruit. My personal war on unhealthy wieght is a bunch of small everyday battles. And lately a bunch of small victories. Just last friday , I attempted surfing. I had always been weary of trying this becuase it requires good physical conditioning. I was really intimidated by the dreaded pop up required to stand on a surfboard. My friends wife Kristen took us out . We practiced the pop up. I had lost enough weight to do this move. I was happy. She helped me to paddle out and taught me how to try to catch a wave. It was all very hard and very strenuous. I cuaght a couple waves but did not manage to stand up and really surf. But I am not as scared of it as I once was. In fact the whole experience boosted my confidence that with more training and conditioning I will be able to surf. P.S. Sorry that i have not posted in a week. I had a friend in from out of town, we spent all of our free time at the beach.Where else am I going to get a beach body?

weekly progress..

So I lost five pounds this last week. Thanks to those who stopped by and left comments I hope you come back. I should also thank Mr. Contorversy Himself Peter Gunz. He is where I get alot of my nutrional information from. You can ask him health and fitness questions at http://web.mac.com/peter_gunz/Site/Welcome.html . Okay So I should say that many times I have not turned to the scale to check my progress. I have been hearing good things ,people telling me that I am looking like I am losing weight. They often ask how much wieght have you lost. My answer is I don't know. I usually track my progress by how well my clothes fit. Or by how good I feel. The reason for that is that is muscle weighs more than fat. The scale does not give an accurate depiction of ones real progress. Muscle gain may make it look like I made no real progress. Or even worse a person may lose muscle and think they are getting fitter cause they are losing wieght. But for the purposes of this blog I will count my pounds lost.

A day of rest,

Six days thou shalt labor and on the seventh thou shalt rest. God knew what he was doing, he designed us. One important part of working out that is very important to consider is the resting part. Our body needs time to recover and rebuild. It is important to take days off to let it do this. When doing things like resistance training ,the body will grow muscle to compensate for an increased work load. Also the impact from running or walking creates a need to rebuild bones. Or bodies have a whole lot of work to do when we are finished working out. At first I needed to work out one day then rest the next day. I have built up my endurance so that I can work out more days in a row. But there are some days when I am still wiped out from the previous days workout. On days like this I rest, I take a nap and let my body do what it needs to do. Resting is important so that we do not over train. Over training may actually slow down or metabolism and really impede the progress we have made. So I rest and I make sure I give my body what it need to rebuild stuff, mainly protiens. I will often have a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk before i go to bed.

what is working out...

Like most people many of my past attempts to lose weight often involved getting a gym membership. Like many people I would take my two free training sessions and use my membership for like a month. I don't currently have a gym membership. Like with food my philosophy on exercise has changed. About a year ago I saw a news report about a black guy that would train people in Central Park. These people were losing weight lots of weight. This guy would basically hold play sessions. He and his group would run around and basically pays simon says. It looked like a play session. The people looked like they were having fun. And they were losing weight. So I I left the gym behind. I once tried Tai chi. I was sweating by the time I was done. I have even tried some Yoga. I now use a variety of exercises that I enjoy that keep my heart rate elevated. I basically believe that exercise can be fun. No need to suffer. There are so many resources online to learn different fun exercises. The strategy is simple the more I enjoy the excercise the likelier I am to stick with it.

walked today forty minutes

do as i do ,.

I have to admit that today after my swim I wanted a cheeseburger really bad. I actually came up with a way to deter myself from giving into this craving. Lets say I'm at a fast food chain, I look around and see who is eating what. I tell myself that if I eat the same thing they are eating I will look like them. I ask myself do I want to look like these people. So alot of times the answer is no so I decide to take the healthier alternative. I bought myself some fruit had a little salmon to hold me over and then made a vegetarian minestrone for dinner.

walked 2.2 miles
swam 30minutes