transformation of a fatty

Last spring I joined a gym.  My friend got me into playing racquetball which was a total blast.  A couple of months later I had a messed up elbow and so cooled off on that and started doing more weights.  The goal was to lose a couple of pounds and feel better about myself.  At one point in February 2012 I was weighing in at 250 on a friends scale.  I carry the weight better because I'm tall but I knew I could feel the weight on me.  I felt sluggish and just clumsy.  It's hard to describe really but I knew something was wrong.

Fast forward to November.  It's cold and crummy out.  Holidays coming up which means lots of food and erratic lifestyle patterns.  I kept hitting the gym 2-3 nights a week.  Weights with some racquetball on occasion.  Weight hovering consistently around 242-245.

My boost came from signing up for the site myfittnesspal.com (MFP) after my doctor recommended it.  It's the first time I've used any site like this.  It's been a way to be honest with myself.  I'll eat whatever I want and do whatever I want still.  The catch is I'm forcing myself to record what I'm consuming and doing.  Not getting too over the top recording every little thing in there but it's been a real eye opening experience.

What I like the most is the way it crunches the number.  It figures out how much you are allotted for different categories like: calories, carbs, sat fat (something i need to stay away from), protein, cholesterol, and sodium (another one for me to avoid).  It shows me more or less what I've got allowed for the day.  After the gym I enter how long I rode a bike and other cardio stuff and so it increases what I'm allotted for the day.  Most importantly, it's a way to immediately what the consequences are for some of my consumption choices.  I had a frozen pizza one night.  Didn't lie about it and entered it in there and saw the outcome.  I've got no one to blame but myself for the results.

I'm not overly religious about using MFP.  I use it during the week.  Weekends is more difficult because I cook and wind up eating out too much with my g/friend.  I also drink A LOT on the weekends.  Even with allowing myself to slip on the weekends, I've had good results from this.  The week before Christmas I weighed in at 238!  I've not seen that weight in a couple of years!!!

So here it is after the holiday season.  It's Friday.  Tonight I'll weigh in and see that I'm in the 245 range again.  I can feel it. I'm OK with that.  I didn't do much at the gym in almost a month and this is all my fault.  I can't dwell on this too much. Next week will be better.  I've had my fun.  It's back to work.

A bad day eating + lots of alcohol and no gym action  :(

A good day eating + cardio at the gym :)

My point is that I'm looking forward making a strong push with this in the coming months.  I'm looking forward to using MFP in addition to my growing workout routine and seeing the results.  I'm happy with my progress in the past year.  From the couch, to racquetball, to weights, all in a year... it's been a (hopefully) life changing experience.  I'm looking forward to that "lean" feel i had just a couple of weeks ago.  I'm looking forward to going to bed at night semi sore from the gym and sleeping like a rock.  I'm looking forward to NOT waking up on a random morning with a sore back or neck because i slept wrong or did something stupid.  I'm doing this for myself.  I'm doing this so I can physically feel the way i feel mentally.  I'm doing this for me and to hell with everyone else.

Bottled water consumption

A friend sent me link to more information on the topic of water consumption.

What caught my eye about the topic is that everyone seems to forget that they get water from their food too.  Does a person who eats salad and lots of fruits need as much water.  Theoretically no because the food they're consuming is heavy in water to begin with.

I guess what I'm focusing in on are the people who pound water all day.  It should be a gradual process.  I know people who believe they should have a specific amount drank by different times of the day and if you disrupt their routine they'll go mental.  How can this be healthy?  All they hear is "drinking water is bad for you" when i say "forcefully drinking that much water in a limited time frame is probably bad for you".  Maybe they couldn't hear me because of the sounds of water sloshing around.  :)

Most importantly on this topic are those that consume bottled water.  Go to a grocery store and stand in the soda/water isle for a couple of minutes.  You're bound to see someone come up and grab multiple cases of water.  If I'm in a more affluent part of town, it's my observation that I'll see this even more.

This brings up the bottle vs tap argument.  I'm not sure whether people are using bottled water as a status sign, or if they're lazy, or if they're that clueless and so they buy into the propaganda.

I say "status sign" because it appears that people go out of their way to show they're drinking their bottle of water everywhere that they go.  As though they're soooooo healthy that they need to flaunt that they're not putting that low brow toxic stuff in their system.  Watch them.  They display their bottles very prominently in meetings and even on their desk.  Like coffee cups of yesteryear, your bottle of water reflects what you're trying to say about your lifestyle.

I said "lazy" because there are a lot of people who use it for the convenience factor.  As soon as their done with their serving, maybe they'll even throw it in a recycling bin.  It frightens me when i see this happening in homes.  Grab the bottle because it's more convenient than actually filling a glass.  That's OK though because it'll get recycled (hopefully) when they're done and they'll grab a fresh one in a couple of hours.  Yes I'm calling you lazy if you do this.  Get over it.  You've got a million excuses but in the end you know they're pretty flimsy.

There's countless sites dedicated to the argument of bottle vs tap.  Those that are adamant about using bottled don't use them though and prefer to use the facts written on the labels or information that "someone told me a while back but i don't remember who or when" which is usually code for THIS IS BULLSHIT COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH BUT IT SOUNDS GOOD.  I find it ironic that in the easy access information age that we are in today how few people fact check stuff even after they're called out on it.

I'm not saying drinking water is bad.  That much should be obvious.  I'm saying that the hype about how much you should drink is incorrect.  I'm also saying that people need to stop buying multiple cases of bottled water at a time because they're wasting their money on a product who's packaging does more harm than good.

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About me:  I have a case of water in my freezer since it's summer time and I can pull a frozen bottle out and have it be cold in a couple of hours after sitting in a cooler.  I also use those frozen bottles in coolers instead of buying ice packs because as serve a dual purpose of chilling things and when they thaw I can drink them.  I strongly prefer my water to be cold.  I have a bottle on my desk every day that starts off frozen and I refill it constantly so the water stays cold as the ice melts.  I do this to cut back on my soda intake which has been known to hit 6-7 cans a day easily.  I also take my bottles home with me, fill them up from the tap and toss them in the freezer for the next day.  When they are all gone I will be using old soda bottles.  I do this because there is no reasonable source of ice cubes throughout the day for me at work.  I'm anti plastic whenever possible and work to minimize that type of packaging in my life.

You may now attack my views.

I have to pee

I have to pee.  Seriously.  I really need to go.

In the past couple of weeks I've started on a quest of self improvement when it comes to my diet.  I still drink like a fish and will eat the hell out of some chicken wingz.  I've always believed that you can eat anything you want as long as it's in moderation.  As part of this attempted lifestyle change I began to record what i ate. Not getting overly granular and recording portion sizes and quantity etc.  Just more or less making notes.  I try to keep track of how many Dew's I have but beyond that I'm not going to waste my time trying to figure out if i had a two servings of cookies vs three based on what the package said.  I'll worry about portion sizes another day...

I was inspired to do something like this because of something I heard on NPR a couple of weeks ago.  The topic was childhood obesity and I hope you'll forgive me for not remembering too many of the details of the show.  The nutritionist on the program said the first step she had parents do before bringing their children in was to record what they ate for two weeks.  The parents were in denial that they and their kids ate so poorly but there it was in black and white.  Attempts were made to rationalize why the kids ate hot dogs and mac n cheese every night for a week.  Most parents genuinely believe their kids eat better than they really do.  Kids don't like their veggies which is no shocker.  The parents being referenced in this show were amazed at just how badly they were feeding their kids.

This got me thinking.  I don't think i eat THAT badly.  I like my veggies.  I know i buy them when i go shopping.  I know i like to eat them when i go out.  In fact I ate veggies... last night...errr... lunch the day before... err... shit I can't remember now!

I began recording my consumption last week and I'm very much not proud of what I'm reading when i look at it.  I didn't realize how little water I've been consuming recently and it's summer when I should be consuming more!

The first lifestyle change so far isn't too drastic and gradual.  I bring a bottle of frozen water to work every day and keep filling it up through out the day so it stays cold.  Bottle is appx 16 oz and on Fri I estimate I had over four bottles (only recorded four because I'm not trying to cheat myself here).  My bladder went into overdrive!!!  Every time i turned around I had to go to the bathroom again.

A friend of mine gave me a piece of advice when it comes to increasing water consumption.  Always take your bottle with you whenever you go somewhere.  It's easier to sip then as you're going somewhere whether it's at work or out in public.  I only like water when it's very cold so i purposely have a smaller bottle.  This means it won't get warm too fast.  Also means i get through it quicker (nice morale boost).  Every time I have to go pee now I bring the bottle with me to fill up on my return back to my desk.

Aside from the constant flushing, am I noticing an effect yet after increasing the water intake in the past week?  I can't pinpoint anything one way or another yet so i can't answer this question yet.  What's most important for me is that I'm becoming more aware.  I don't call this a diet.  I call this a lifestyle improvement.  As i said before, I still drink like a fish and will tear up some chicken wings if given the opportunity to.  I'm not looking to change my entire lifestyle.  Just looking to tweak things a bit.

No joking... I have to pee again...