Determined To Succeed

Sometimes we all need a kick in the ass to remind us of the wonderful gifts we have been given in life. Sure, that kick could come when seeing someone who doesn’t have means standing on the street begging for money as we enter a Starbucks Coffee to order a $5 cup of coffee. However today, that kick means something different and something so fundamental that even that coffee buyer and the beggar have in common…the ability to walk.

Yesterday, I was doing research in the local Barnes & Noble Bookstore, looking up words and phrases and clauses (sorry, I couldn’t resist the “Conjunction Junction” Schoolhouse Rock reference). I was looking up editor  information in magazines and had completed my task. “A cup of coffee sounds good right about now,” I thought to myself and I packed up what little I had brought in with me and headed toward the door.

When I got to the door I was reminded of life’s gifts. It was instant, resonant and humbling and didn’t come in the form of words but in the form of another human being.

At the door there was a woman, maybe in her 30s, holding the door for another. This other woman was walking slowly because she could not walk at all without the help of the two canes she carried, one in each hand. And not just normal canes. These had the four-pronged bottoms that help steady a person as they walk and she had two of them because her legs, swollen and big as they were, looked weak.

I held open the other door and both ladies said “you don’t have to” in the sweetest voices imaginable, and I said “don’t you worry about it at all” as the second lady slowly made her way to the threshold. There, I noticed the rest of her body was suffering the same malady. She looked up at me and in the kindest, sweetest voice possible she said “thank you so much” and my heart melted. I asked how their day was going and they said “fine” with smiles. As the second lady was through I offered “now, you stay cool and out of all this heat we’ve been having.” The first lady said “oh we will. She even gets cold in here.” I said, “good. Better than outside in all that heat.” I told both ladies to have a great rest of their day and they offered the same, the second lady looking up at me smiling with the biggest eyes you can imagine on a person.

As I left the store I realized two things: one, that most of the second lady’s strength was not in her limbs but in her heart. Two, that all of us who can walk – not run, jump, skip, dance, or kick – have a gift. It was obvious that this woman had some type of degenerative condition from which she will not recover. Why is it then we sit on our asses, us healthy people, and bitch about how little energy we have especially when it comes time to work out?

Yesterday served as a reminder to me that if you are of able body, no matter what your size, it behooves you to get up and make every day count physically. Those of us who are larger have obligations to ourselves NOT to just sit there but to get up to try to prolong our lives. Losing weight and eating better and exercising are the keys to doing that, keys which most of us have right there in front of us. Hell, I did it and I was 400 pounds. I started by walking, the one thing I knew I could do. The one and only thing this second woman could do.

You have heard me say from time to time that larger people have a responsibility to themselves to get up, and that is true. We have that responsibility because no one is, or should, do it for us. There is no magic pill for weight loss therefore it will come from our own hard work and effort. But shame on us if we squander the days we have, bigger or not, if he delay that process simply because we don’t “feel” like going for a walk. That’s bullshit. I’m sure that second woman would love to go for a simple walk unencumbered by her two walking canes.

So get up and do an exercise today, any exercise. Tummy crunch, push-up, sit-up, arm curl or simply go for a walk. Do it because you CAN go for a walk. Do it because your legs DO work, no matter what size they are. And do it knowing you have a gift – the gift of ability – that others do not have.  It doesn’t matter what size you are, either. When you awoke today you got up knowing you could do these things. So get up and do them, especially if you want to lose weight.

After all, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step so don’t squander them. For many of us that single step, as simple as it is, is not as easy for others and could very well be the hardest thing they could possibly do.

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.

Man, am I up early today.

I have  a video shoot to go to today for a show some friends of mine are putting together for a series called Mind, Body & Spirit and they have honored me with hosting a segment or two.  So, I’m up early writing before getting ready and heading out into (ick) rush hour traffic).

I thought about our minds, bodies and spirits as we enter DAY FIVE of this brand new year (man, we are almost a whole week into 2010 already). Anyone beginning a weight loss journey must have all three in sync to tackle this.

Your mind must be prepared because you’ve made the mental decision to lose weight. Your mind must be strong to make smarter choices about the things we eat. It also will decide how we work out and what adjustments we make in perceiving food (from empty friend binges to nourishment enriched by treats every now and then).

Your body must be prepared because you’ve made the decision to change it. You’ve decided it’s time to exercise and work out. Your mind will tell you what you need to do to increase your activity but your body must be strong to carry it out. Your body will be pushed but that’s OK. Doing what you can to start is great, while gradually working up to a place where you do, say, 50 sit-ups at one time. Whatever exercises you choose to do it’s this increase in activity that will help get you to your goal of changing your body for the better.

And your spirit must be prepared to begin walking this journey. Sometimes it will feel very lonely. Yes, you will (hopefully) have encouragement along the way but these are the steps YOU are taking. It will feel great at times, and there will be stumbling blocks occasionally. You might gain back a pound or two. But with a strong spirit you will overcome those stumbling blocks with faith and love of and in yourself, keeping your mind and body be strong so that all three can get you to your goal weight.

I made a promise to myself to keep this blog short today so I will. You are amazing and you have within your mind, body and spirit all you need to begin or continue this weight loss journey.

And speaking of Journey, keep one of their signature songs in mind as you start today…

…DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’.

Hello my friends and welcome to Sunday, December 27th, which just happens to be the last day of Christmas weekend and the first weekend of Kwanzaa. With most of us back to work tomorrow today is the last day to fit in the last remaining things we have to do, especially getting ready for New Year’s Eve/Day, getting some after Christmas/Boxing Day bargain shopping in or cleaning up from the weekend.

Sure, there are plenty of things to do to take up time in a day but it is most important to make and take the time to do what we need to do for ourselves. So I’m going to ask you a simple but tough question. Ready? What have you done for yourself the past few days? I know we’ve all had wonderful foods (and in my case a wee-bit too much food), spent time with family, friends, co-workers, etc., but what have you done just for you to help yourself on your weight loss journey?

Did you get up the past couple of days to work out and exercise? Did you eat a bit less before, after or during? Did you tell people you’re trying to lose weight and stick to it? I really hope so because no one is going to take care of you but you, especially in this weight loss journey.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not coming down hard on anyone because, as I have stated in the past, I am human, too, and am just as guilty about not working out when I should, eating badly and too much, etc. I am just here to remind you today that in all that needs to be done you should take some time out for yourself, maybe an hour, to work on your weight loss journey because that’s important, too.

Every journey has a beginning, we all know that. And while we will be walking this path for the rest of our lives (eating better and exercising to maintain a goal weight) there is a goal we’re trying to reach. We must all do what we need to do to get there. That’s why I say to tell everyone of your incredible courage in starting your journey. For support, understanding and a nudge when you need one.

Sure, today may be the first sunny day we’ve had in southern New Jersey in quite a long time and a great day to get out and enjoy but the first thing on my “to do” list was to get up and exercise. Now I can enjoy the rest of my “to do” list and only think about what foods I should or should not eat all day instead of wondering when I could possibly fit in a workout, too.

We are all here for each other along this path we’re taking, and there will be many who join us along the way. Maybe you’ve encountered some people who you’ve inspired to lose weight (which is awesome). But always remember one simple thing…

…the steps you take today, or any day, will get you that-much-closer to your goal of weight loss and we are all on this path together. So add YOU to your “to do” list.

YOU should always be the first thing on that piece of paper, notepad or Blackberry/IPhone task manager. After all, you are the most important thing in the world.