Determined To Succeed

Happy Monday, everyone! Today is the Memorial Day holiday and I am sitting here at my computer thinking about the week I have coming up this week. It’s going to be weird, fun, trying, adrenaline-filled and cool. And I just need to keep my cool when it comes to food.

Here’s the deal. This coming Saturday is the first live audition for people to possibly win their own show for Oprah and her new OWN network. You guys already know I have submitted a video entry to the “Win Your OWN Show” contest and, according to the rules, anyone can do both the live audition and the recorded one. So I am throwing caution to the wind and doing both, myself.

Here’s the rub. The live auditions are Saturday and they are only seeing the first 500 people of so. What that means for yours truly is I am thinking I will have to get there pretty darn early on Saturday morning to get in line. There is also the distinct possibility that I will have to get in line a day or two early to secure my place in the first 500 as I am sure this will bring out thousands and thousands of people.

And with this in mind a long and strange week begins.

Here’s the deal. Since I don’t know what day the line will start forming I am not quite sure when I will heading up to make myself voluntarily homeless for this once-in-a-lifetime shot.  Yes, yours truly will be doing any and everything he can to make sure he is one of the first 500 in line so he is definitely seen and not heard.

Here’s the rub. I know fer sure (like totally) I will not be blogging on Saturday morning. And if I do have to be in line a day or two early I will not be blogging for those couple of days either because I just don’t think it wise to bring a laptop to the place where I potentially will be sleeping outside with strangers, and I sleep soundly. How soundly do you ask? Well, I’ve slept through one of Chicago’s two extremely rare earthquakes, thunder and lightning storms, you name it, and I don’t want my “Little Blue” (the nickname I gave my netbook) to somehow walk away.

And here’s the promise. You can bet your bottom dollar I will fill you in on ever aspect of everything I go through when Sunday rolls around.

As far as food goes I am at 237 even today which means Bill is a grumpy but re-committed lad. I told you guys yesterday I have been stress eating but after a day of some reflection, some tears and a bit of work I am better.  Being better means I already have this weekend in mind for what I will be eating, so I also have to scope out food sources at the shopping complex or nearby and make sure there is a Wawa (my convenience store of choice) so I can get healthier sandwiches, coffee and water (yep, good ol’ H2O and not Coca-Cola).

Also, I will be working out every day until I have to head on up and camp out. It will be a combination of cardio and weights so that my body knows I mean business because I should be just as committed to that (if not more so) than standing in a line with thousands of my best friends.

They say there is honor among thieves. I certainly hope that’s true especially when it comes to having to get out of line to go to the bathroom. OK, I know that’s T.M.I. but at least it made you laugh. At least I hope it did.

Have a wonderful day my friends, and remember our service people around the world today. It may be the third day of a three-day weekend for you. For them, and for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for which we honor them with this day, it’s about honor, duty and freedom…

…even having the freedom to be weird and camp out to eventually make an ass of oneself to a bunch of producers this coming Saturday. Only in the USA.

All along this weight loss journey I’ve had my peaks and valleys, my highs and lows and my temptations and successes. And there have been some weekends I’ve had the will power to resist such foods and some where I haven’t. Some of my weaknesses have seemed consuming at times – my “need” for snacks, Chinese food and Coca-Cola, just to name a few. But as much as I sometimes dread the weekends for this eating I look forward to Mondays to start the week anew.

I look forward this week in particular to really hitting the gym hard and taking the further advice of the personal trainer, Jorge. Which means I’m going to focus every other day weight training and alternate days doing cardio changing all of it up as I go to make sure my body doesn’t freeze on a weight because it’s used to the workout.

I look forward to this week to really get back on track with eating well. I have to admit something here. Those weaknesses I spoke about earlier…one of them is the weekend, in general. For some strange reason I am so much better with being good during the week. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s because things seem so much more regimented. Work begins at nine, ends around five, you eat dinner, watch a few shows and then the next day starts.

But the weekend comes and then somehow my mind opens the floodgates. Maybe it’s running around doing errands, hanging with friends and not being on such a schedule makes me more susceptible to, uh, the suggestion of food. Argh!! Why can’t those floodgates close? I wish I knew.

Ah well. I wrote in one of my weight loss blogs once not to spend too much time dwelling in the past. I even used one of my favorite movies ever, Disney’s “The Lion King,” to illustrate how forgiving oneself of the past and focusing on nothing but the future is the way to find the potential in us all for success. So I do look forward to getting back to the routine of the week, the routine of mind over fatter (as I call it).

It’s kind of hard to believe the year is already almost a quarter over. Can you believe it? I can’t. But I know in my heart it has been time well-spent. Learning something new each and every day on my weight loss journey. And with each and every day comes the opportunity to start anew, just like Mondays…

It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads me regularly to know I love “The Empire Strikes Back,” the second film of the “real” “Star Wars” trilogy (the prequels really don’t count and suck anyway). Anywho, in “The Empire Strikes Back” Luke Skywalker is instructed by Yoda, the wise 900-yeasr-old Jedi master, who teaches the kid a thing or two about how to use the Force. Then, when a challenge arises, Luke looks to Yoda and says simply “Unlearn what you have learned.”

I always think about that phrase when dealing with weight loss. Over the three-and-a-half years it took to lose weight and the roughly year-and-a-half I have kept it off (for the most part) I have learned many things that I have used to not only get me through but also offer as advice nuggets (like Chicken McNuggets except better and healthier for you) to those looking for ways to lose weight. But yesterday I was that young Jedi Knight trying to unlearn and put to use the pearls of wisdom imparted to me by Jorge, the personal trainer I saw a couple of weeks ago. So I went to the gym yesterday and started my workout.

Before I begin I feel compelled to say to consult a doctor or personal trainer before attempting any of the exercises I describe in this blog, as they might be strenuous and not suitable for all to do.

One of the things I’ve learned is that cardio exercises, like the elliptical or a treadmill, burn calories but also burn oxygen. However the best way to burn fat is to incorporate weight training into a routine. So I started with shoulder shrugs. Taking a heavy 50-pound dumbbells into each hand I simply shrugged, imitating the “duh, I don’t know” movement we all do from time to time. Except this time I had weight resistance working out my shoulders and back at the same time.

I then switched out to a lighter weight (ten pounds) and did lifts. Placing one knee on a workout bench and anchoring myself with the hand of the same side I took the weight in the opposite hand and lifted it so that my elbow, which is supposed to do all the lifting, came to a 90-degree angle. Then, I slowly let the weight down swinging the dumbbell in front of me like the arm of a grandfather clock. I repeated that ten times then switched sides.

Immediately following that I did the “Superman,” and exercise where the person lays on the floor, arms extended, like Superman and lifts both the front end of their body and legs which works out the back muscles. Oh God, is this difficult but I did manage ten of these before moving on to the next thing, which were lunges.

This seemingly simple exercise, where the participant takes a giant step forward with one leg and stretches out the other behind, uses your leg muscles in ways that really make you feel it, and boy did I feel it. I did twenty of these in the gym. Jorge said to extend my leg so far I could see my toes in front of me when I stepped forward. Well, doing that makes it far more difficult but that also makes it work the legs better. Ouch, but good.

In-between each different exercise I hopped onto the treadmill and did a quick our minutes just to get my heart rate up, which is what Jorge said to do. So I did. It’s not what I’m used to since most of my exercises were cardio in nature but I did it. I kept going, moving from one thing to the next – weighted leg lifts, tummy crunches, weights, push-ups and more – in rapid succession so my body didn’t have time to adjust to the routine, burning more fat (I hope) in the process.

When I was done I sat in the steamroom (my favorite activity) and thought about not just the workout but HOW I worked out. I thought about how many more muscles I used and hoped it did me well in losing more weight and burning more fat. Most of all I thought about Yoda, wondering if he would stand there looking at his Jedi trainee with satisfaction or with disappointment as he did Luke when he tried to “unlearn what he had learned.”

But then I thought of something else Yoda said that can be applied to all of us trying to lose weight, keep it off and exercise as part of a new and better lifestyle. Yoda says “do or do not. There is no try.” And so we shall, doing what we can where we can and knowing something, anything, is better than doing nothing. And that doing something brings us one step closer to those weight loss goals and to being our own personal weight loss Jedi Knights.

Damned evil Chinese food!!!!

OK, I had been doing great all weekend. You heard me recount over the past few days what I’ve eaten and, with very few exceptions, had been doing OK. That is until I had egg foo young last night. I figured it was my reward for eating so well, particularly the past few days with the personal trainer dude. So, since I had been good and exercised (I lots of cardio yesterday), I could indulge in what the egg rolls the other day couldn’t sate – my taste for a Chinese food dinner. Man, did I turn out to be wrong.

For the record, I was fairly good with the meal. I usually go for a main entree, egg rolls and maybe fried rice of some type. But yesterday was different. I was trying to be good so I just had an order of egg foo young. I didn’t even have my customary Coke with it (I had diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale instead). So I plopped down and watched one of my favorite action movies, “Kill Bill: Volume One” (or as I like to joke “Kill Me: Volume One”) and enjoyed my fried eggy goodness.

Again, I say, damn! I always try so hard to be good and eat what I should. And I get so freaking frustrated that I seem to work so hard for several days, even a week, to lose just a pound or so just to have it come back after one meal the very next day. What the $#%& is that?! I wish it were the other way around – we could lose seven or so pounds a week and eat something and just gain back a half-pound or so. Grrrrrr.

Today is a rainy, dreary Monday here in New Jersey. While some states, like my home state of Illinois, had snow and colder temps, today is the perfect day here to work out – and work off that blasted egg foo yuck. And there will be no reason NOT to work out. It is on today’s TO DO list, along with the other things I’m going to try to accomplish. One thing is for certain, though. I am sooooo going back to following my new and improved meal plan. It seemed to work. That and combining weight training and resistance with cardio should bring that pound off.

I can’t tell you how glad I am to actually have a plan for this. It used to be I’d gain weight and not know WHY the things I did were bad and HOW I was going to deal with it. Thanks to this entire weight loss journey I know I am prepared for taking that extra pound off and all the other extra pounds I want to re-lose, as well. It is very much one day at a time and one pound at a time. Each pound down being a reward and that to me makes me know I will do this.

That is why I know we can all do this. It may feel like an impossible battle most days but it’s not. Having egg foo young for dinner and gaining a pound is just a stumbling block. Nothing more. Just like a cookie, pint of ice-cream, slice of cake, pasta dinner, etc., are stumbling blocks. Now, it’s time to pick ourselves up from the weekend. Dust ourselves off and keep on moving forward. Failure is only permanent if we let it be – and I’ll be damned if I let this pound I gained back become permanent.

As part of my on-going writing gig I did an interview with Katie, a woman here in South Jersey who lost 130-pounds, which is awesome.  As part of that interview, I talked to Jorge, her personal trainer. He is the one who helped Katie lose weight and I thought it would be a neat idea to see it from her side – what it was like to have a trainer. So I talked to Jorge who invited me to come to his gym yesterday to my first-ever personal training session.

Hell, I am always looking for ways to burn fat and this was certainly going to be an education at the least. But when all was said and done, I  have to say it was really, really cool. I was also excited because of a symbolic reason: today was day-one of one of my new pair of New Balance gym shoes (what we in Chicago call sneakers). I thought it very fitting (all puns intended) to begin a new path on my weight loss journey in brand new (and very comfy) shoes .

By a quarter-to-twelve I arrived at Jorge’s gym. I didn’t know quite what to expect (except to sweat a lot) so I got there just to look the place over. I admittedly was a bit nervous. Coming from such a heavy 400-lb. background the old programming has the ability to take over and make me feel pretty intimidated by the machines and the people in a more professional gym. But I took a deep breath and began.

He had me start by doing cardio (about five minutes on the treadmill) just to loosen me up and get my heart rate going. Then, we jumped right into some good ab training. It was the first time I used a medicine ball like so:  I laid flat on my back and extended my arms over my head holding the medicine ball. Then, using my abs, I lifted my torso and threw him the 10-pound medicine ball. Damn, did I feel that immediately in my stomach.

After that we did reps of push-ups (always a weakness), crunches, exercise ball and then back to the medicine ball. After that series of exercises we went right into weight training. I did “shrugs” and I used barbells for the first time, too. I did hamstring stretches, different kinds of dumbbell lifts, more ab crunches, a Stairmaster and…and I sweated more in ten minutes than I usually do in my gym on the elliptical in half-an-hour.

I found out that fast-changing of machine exercises keeps the body guessing which helps it burn fat more and burn fat faster more so than cardio exercises do. Moreover, when you do exercises for extended periods of time your body gets used to them, therefore you burn less and less fat over time. By changing up exercises, especially those using weights and weight resistance, your body burns more fat.

After a fairly quick forty-five minutes I felt muscles in my upper arms, shoulders and abs I haven’t used in a long time – and it felt great. I was so excited to be learning new and different exercises to hopefully get the rest of these stubborn pounds off me and to tone-up a bit. I may not ever have the best, non-flabby body in the world but I sure as hell can try.

When it was over I was juiced. Those endorphins were released and I couldn’t wait to work out today. The second of two complimentary appointments happens on Friday and you bet your cross-trainers I will tell you about that session, too. But one of the things I made clear to Jorge was that I wanted to relay to you guys how to do the same types of exercises WITHOUT bigger pieces of gym equipment, using what you might have at home or in a gym not as well stocked with machines, medicine balls and barbells. The most important thing is just to be active, no matter what kinds of exercises you do. I am also going to share with you the food plan he shared with me once I find out more about how that is supposed to work and for how long and when.

Today was really good. Working out felt really good. Most of all, working on me felt really good. As I head into my gym tomorrow I will use that same basic rapid-fire machine-to-machine technique to help me burn fat and hopefully keep burning it. I still have visions of having a great body someday and having some of these tricks of the trade will help me get there – especially with summer just around the corner.