Determined To Succeed

Day one-hundred-three.

It’s Friday and I am sitting at my desk contemplating things, and I guess when I say “contemplating” I really mean “worrying about” things. I am “contemplating” the weekend, Thanksgiving, my birthday, the holidays (Christmas) and New Year’s Eve – all of which have one thing in common, food. I know I am the master of my own destiny when it comes to food and crap but ’tis the season to be jolly and ’tis the season to eat. Eat. EAT!

I already have worries enough about weekends, those times where I know I will either eat more than I should, not workout as much as I should or both. I don’t know why I worry so much, either. I mean I will be working out, at least tomorrow (Saturday) and might have a go on Sunday, too, but in my mind it’s social time, I guess. Not to mention our weather is starting to get colder and our animalistic instincts take over so we eat to store up fat for the winter. Grrrrr. I will just have to stay good and keep repeating that to myself as I take deep breaths and head to the gym.

Then, coming this next week, is Thanksgiving, my favorite food holiday, and I know I will be weak for all the trimmings that turkey brings to the table. I will be – wait for it – gobbling it all up (insert moans for bad pun here) and I just have to take deep breaths and know two things: one, that no one is going to take that food from me and two, that I should eat my first plate slowly and wait to feel full before I possibly – POSSIBLY – go in for plate two. Again, deep DEEP breaths.

Following Thanksgiving (again, a moment of silence for what is sure to be the pound or two I gain) is my birthday, and not just any birthday – my 40th. The 19th anniversary of my 21st and I do plan to celebrate life. I just have to remember to take deep breaths before diving into any kind of food stuffs (although I am sure a drink or six might be involved somewhere along the line).

Finally, the holidays, Christmas and New Year’s Eve – more food, making merry and eating! Egads! No wonder so many of us make resolutions to lose weight in the new year. We simply just want to lose what we’ve gained over the holidays and the winter being all animalistic.

So, O.K. There it is, laid out before us like a road on a map I sure as hell don’t want to follow but have to. And it’s not that I dislike this time of year. I like it very, very much. I just am slowly – SLOWLY – creeping back down in my weight (I am at 240.8 today) and I don’t want that headway to be lost. That’s all. But foods of this time of year are so full of warm, comforty goodness. Dammit! What’s a fat guy like me to do?

Stop.

Close my eyes.

Take a deep breath.

That’s what I have to do and hopefully that breath will fill my mind with the fresh air it needs to think clearly and fill my tummy with goodness so I don’t just stuff my face.

First thing’s first…let’s get through this weekend. Deep breath time. Have a great weekend, everyone, and good luck.

Ugh. I am dragging my butt today. That’s what I get for staying out until 2 AM on New Year’s Eve. I had a blast but I still had to get my lazy butt up to go workout today no matter how late I slept.

As I was getting dressed I kept thinking how nice it would be to see someone (anyone) in the gym working out, too. Just as a motivator. Like “I’m not the only one doing this crazy s$%t on New Year’s Day. But did I see anyone? No. Hell no. If you can imagine the image of a tumbleweed in one of those old west movies blowing across the street in the deserted town. That’s what it was like.

Silent. Empty. Unmotivating.

I felt freaking deflated. I mean, c’mon. Am I the only one working out today? It was enough to make me NOT work out today. But I walked over to the elliptical and got on the damn thing and pressed “start.” Luckily the thing has a TV attached to it so I turned it on and started flipping channels. I landed on Comedy Central because shots of depressing news, Regis and Kelly and stupid reality shows weren’t going to cut it.

But something cool happened. As the Tracy Morgan special ended Comedy Central did me a true favor. It played one of the funniest movies ever – the original “Airplane.” And can I just tell you that watching that movie made the time getting through the usual four miles go so much faster. Before I knew it I got to three miles and almost four by the time of the first commercial. That was awesome.

There are just days harder than others to find motivation to exercise. Thanks to this movie I finished my four miles and laughed my way to do my 100 tummy crunches.

So thank you Paramount Pictures for “Airplane.” You may not know me from Adam but that 30 year old movie (God, is it 30 years old already?) helped me start my new year in a healthy mental empire state of mind.

In my past life in public relations I worked for an aquarium. Working there was cool. Not only did I learn a lot about the life aquatic I was given the opportunity to participate in a swim with the sharks snorkel experience. It was in a word awesome. To see a shark coming at you and knowing you shouldn’t move was out of this world exciting! And by the way, most sharks are docile and don’t bother you unless you bother them or look like food dangling in the top four or so feet of a body of water.

After that experience I was intrigued by all things water and scuba diving. Don’t ask me how or why I got that bug to learn diving but I did. Ever since I was young, while having a fundamental knowledge of how to swim, I was afraid of the deep end of the pool. I guess it was the sensation of not having my feet on terra firma, possible drowning and not being able to breathe – you know, normal stuff. But I had all of my diving buddies at the aquarium tell me how cool it is so I sucked it up and signed up for dive classes.

If you’ve never done this yourself or know someone who has the training is broken up into two parts – actual water training exercises in a pool and classroom training. In this classroom training there is one thing, one mantra, that is above all others when it comes to learning to scuba dive. Plan your dive and dive your plan.

You might be saying to yourself “that’s sounds logical,” but they drill that into your head because, most times, divers need to be reminded to extensively plan a dive, every aspect of it, before placing one fin (not flipper) in the water. This simple mantra is the difference between a successful dive and one that could go disastrously wrong.

Weight loss is exactly the same.

As we approach New Year’s Eve many of us will either be making a resolution to begin losing weight or re-affirm our commitment to our weight loss journey. In either case it is imperative to go into this (or continue) with a plan for success. Seeing a goal is one thing. But achieving it takes not just guts but also a step-by-step way to get to that goal. It is a simple thing to do but it’s where most of us lose our air and bail on the resolution weeks, days, even hours after making it.

You make plans to go to the grocery store, right? You never go not knowing what you need. Imagine what it would be like going into any store blindly. It would be overwhelming, confusing and you’d walk out with nothing. That’s why we make lists before we get to a store. So we know what we need, how much of it and plan for it for a specific purpose. Oh sure there’s the general milk, eggs, bread (mmmmm, breakfast) but you buy a power adapter for a computer or a 20-ounce can of pumpkin for specific reasons. Think of weight loss and maintenance the same way.

If you want to lose twenty pounds (an arbitrary number I just plucked from thin air) then ask yourself…

…how long will I give myself to get there?

…what foods do I need to eat/give up to achieve my goal?

…how will I increase my working out/activity/exercise?

…when will I tell people?

I have always stated you should tell your friends you are trying. They will be a support system for you, like you guys and my friends are to me. Then set about writing down on paper the answers to the other questions. And writing it down makes it that much more real. But when you’re done you have the plan for your diving into weight loss. You can, of course feel free to modify, tweak and add to this plan but it’s a great start.

Now all that’s left is to dive into your plan.

We do it at work all the time. Strategy sessions that turn into “actionable steps” (God, I can’t believe I am using ho-hum corporate-speak). We do it when we’re going out (what to wear, how long it will take to get there so we’re not late, etc.). So let’s turn that into something for you. “Actionable steps” for the most important thing in the world you have to take care of – yourself.

So with just a few days to go before New Year’s Eve/Day think about this. What will your plan look like. My plan involves going easier on the Cokes for a bit, maintaining my workouts and eating more steamed foods instead of fried. I am human, and I do need to come up for air every now and then to eat what I want…

…but if I didn’t have my plan I’d be lost, floundering in the water adrift at sea.

Happy Monday, my friends. It’s the start of another week. I can honestly say I started today right. I got up, did a little stretching, went to the gym, did four miles on the elliptical, did weighted tummy crunches (I so want to get rid of this remaining belly of mine) and started the day nice and early.

I also finished a two-part column devoted to New Year’s resolutions. In it I state the two main reasons why we never seem to keep them for very long: we don’t feel worth the work and we have no plan to achieve the goal.

I won’t go into the meat of the columns here but I just wanted you guys to put on your thinking caps now if you are planning on making a New Year’s resolution or two. Mostly I want you to start thinking of your goals for and your plan to begin your weight loss journeys. You’re probably saying, “Whaaaaa!? Now?! I’ve got a couple of weeks until New Year’s. Why now, you screwy guy?”

The answer is simple. On New Year’s Eve I want you to be able to answer the question of HOW you are going to achieve your goals. That’s all. It’s easy to say “oh yeah. I want to lose ten or twenty pounds” on New Year’s Eve. But HOW are you going to do it? What’s your plan?

We are all in this together and I wouldn’t be doing my job as your friend if I didn’t ask these things. Would I? We are all meant to succeed, and I want to see us all succeed. Heck, I still have a few pounds left to go from the grief weight I am still losing (stubborn pounds) but I will get there, too. My body may not look all buff but it’s almost half of what it was before and that is way cool.

So today, start mapping out your plan. You guys are awesome. You really are. And we will pick this conversation up in a couple of weeks. Until then, have a great start to your week.