Fear, Loathing, and Recommitting to "The Process"

Ok, so I didn't tape myself yesterday. I chose not to because I was afraid of having pushed, or worse, gaining more width that I'd already lost. My week was less than exemplary. The gym was not significant enough to warrant a loss. I need cardio, and I know intuitively that it didn't occur.

However I do know that there was a fair amount of crap eating, starting with Tuesday which is known in Mardi Gras parlance as Fat Tuesday. Not hard to figure out why considering the number of muffaleta sandwiches I ate generously. Or the intimate relationship I developed with a bag of Doritos in our grade level workroom.

You see I know where I am on this journey right now. I've lost interest in the process, because its not going according to my schedule, and I haven't been doing the things necessary this week to make this happen, like cardio. And the thing is I know I need the exercise, because after a day of teaching 5th graders the best thing for me to do is go to that gym and hit it. I come out feeling better and more energized. So to get back to the point I've got to regain interest in the process NOW!

So I commit to getting up and dusting myself off and start again, learning from the past, but not wallowing in it, and moving forward. Tomorrow morning the gym, lot's of weights, tomorrow night is cardio. And I eat the food I prepared myself, not anything else. I control what goes in. I make the choices that benefit me, and not harm me. And I simply move forward. New day tomorrow, but the process continues.

Okay enough platitudes.

I think that's it for now. Until next week, when we'll find out the strength of said platitudes.

I'll end this on two positive notes, my sister Stacey has lost over 30 lbs since she had the lap band surgery done last month. You go Stace, awesome job!

The other positive note is that my step sister Alecia Fryman and her husband Jeff are expecting the arrival of their baby boy, no later than the end of this week. When I post again next week Alecia and Jeff will be parents to a healthy baby boy, and their new journey as a family will begin. My mom and step father will be grandparents. I'm excited for my mom to become nana Judy. Stacey will be an aunt, and I'll be uncle Dave. Yeah that makes me smile!

Best regards.

Attack Of The Giant Reese's Peanut Butter Heart

So in my last post I mentioned how eating several hundred calories worth of potato chips could have been a leading factor in my "push" last week. Considering the events of this past week, I would say at best that theory is a weak maybe. You see this week I lost another 1/4 inch around my waist. I am now at 48.5 inches in circumference. Not bad and it is forward progression, and also nothing is orbiting me.

So this week we had our obligatory Valentines Day party at school. I really don't like this "holiday" on so many levels, and no it's not because I'm single. No it's just another artificially induced way to help us part with hard earned cash in ways that we wouldn't do the rest of the year, save for Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and any other "holiday" by which there is a sale attached to it, oh wait that's all of them. And G-d forbid if you're a guy in a relationship, and attempt the above logic on the female of the species whom you are seeing. You're screwed and not in a good way. Anyway Valentines is like the others mentioned, who's real saving grace makes me appreciate Thanksgiving so much more. Btw way did you know that Valentines is a derivative of a Roman (the guys that killed St. Valentine btw), holiday called Lupercallia. One of the traditions of said holiday was that attractive Roman women, scantilly clothed, would run up streets trying to avoid being whipped by some freak show dressed as a wolf. Not kidding, however if we did that, then Thanksgiving might become my second favorite holiday. Alright anti holiday rant off.

Valentines at the elementary level is kind of like Halloween, except no cool costumes, but a definite elevated drama level if you don't get that special Valentine from that special someone. I know we're talking 5th grade here. I had one boy make this giant Valentine for one of our girls he liked. She cleaned up because he gave her a box of candy and a teddy bear. He got a thank you and a Spongebob Squarepants Valentine from her. True story and a slight disparity if you ask me, however our young man will hopefully learn not to gift girls this way, unless the feelings are mutual. So this is one of the whammies of this "holiday."

Alright I know some of you didn't want to sift through all of that just for this. We have the kids bring in food. All of it is CRAP! Chips, dip, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and sugary "fruit" drinks. And people wonder why there is a rise in childhood diabetes, or there is an obesity epidemic with children. The reason is because we as adults don't put a restraint on this. I tried in that I made some of the "chip" choices be Sun Chips, and pretzels. What I would like to see for next year is that we collect a dollar from each student. Half would be spent on our Christmas Party, and half on Valentines. The food choices would be fruit plates, pretzels, baked potato chips, perhaps cheese, and real orange juice, with maybe ONE mini holiday cupcake for each child. I just think this is a whole lot more responsible, than assigning each child to bring an item of questionable health value.

So how does this tie in to my loss of a 1/4 inch. Well as a teacher sometimes students give you awesome gifts. One of mine gave me a giant Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Heart. It was 720 calories of pure peanut buttery chocolate goodness. Another student gave me a Ghiradelli chocolate bar with crushed almond, that had a hint of sea salt. Absolutely delicious! Oh and my girl scout cookies came in, and I ate quite a few peanut butter Do Si Dos, my favorites. So after eating this great wall of junk I still lost 1/4 inch around my waist. Now I did eat healthy for most of my other meals, and I did much more dedicated cardio, the majority of it being swimming. I only lifted once, and that was on Friday night, after having left school at 7:30. Perhaps St. Valentine bestowed to me a Valentines miracle in the loss of that 1/4 inch, for having showed extraordinary dedication by going to the gym on Friday night. Huh jokes on him, as I really didn't have anything better to do, but thanks, cuz I'll take a loss however I can get it.

St. Valentine ROCKS!

Best regards.

A Big Push No Where?

So the positive. My workouts were good, though I only had two "twofers" ( a morning and evening workout ). Weight training was good. I learned that I can burn through a complete all body workout doing three complete 12 weight training exercise circuits, and two core/ab 5 exercise circuits in 45 minutes. We are talking minimal rest, almost going straight from one exercise to another, almost like super setting. Put another way I did 600 repetitions of exercise in 45 minutes. Mind you that factors in exercises like forearm curls, tricep extentions, and bicep curls, since each arm will do an equal amount of repetitions as the other. My heart rate was up.

I also made it a point to try to eat no carbs that consisted of white flour, or even wheat for that matter. Largely successful, save for some potato chips that I ate over the course of this past week.

Now the not so positive, I "pushed" this week in my waist measurements. Meaning I'm still at 48.75" inches as I was last week. Didn't gain any back but didn't lose any either. This is disheartening because I thought by going without bread products combined with exercise I would have lost between .66" to .75", and thus catching up or completely maintaining my average of .5" lost per week. As February stands I am now .75 inches behind this goal, having lost only .25 inches since the 4th.

Still in this endeavor it is important to look at this push positively. I didn't gain anything back, and I can maintain forward progress. As I tell my students when they are learning to shoot, stay focussed on the process of shooting and not the outcome. If you expect to hit a bullseye, but you aren't working the process, you'll be disappointed with the outcome. Likewise if you're tearing up the bullseye, but lose focus for one of your shots and miss the bullseye, there is but one thing to do, learn from your error, move on, (because you can't call, a mulligan recall the bullet back into the gun, and re shoot), and shoot to the best of your ability for the follow up shots, by working the process. Doing the latter, the outcome will likely solve itself.

So really I can only learn and work the process. Did those 500 calories of potato chips, (over 6 days) derail my efforts? Was there an overall reduction in calories because I wasn't eating any grain based products, and was my body just adjusting to this "change?" Was I not getting enough sleep this past week? Was my weight workout too fast? Did I not do enough non circuit training cardio? Is my body simply taking a break after shedding 2.25" from around my waist over the last six weeks? Honestly I don't know the answers to most of these questions. Obviously some things I can factor in and adjust for.

In the end I can only work my process and do mostly everything right, control what I can control, (can't really control if my body decides it needs a bit of a break from losing inches), and keep "pushing" forward, knowing with confidence that at some point I will achieve my goals of total inches lost around the waist, and better physical and emotional health. To do that I have to stay present in the moment, and "work the process" and let the outcome solve itself.

Best regards.

The Mediocre Bowl

Okay first things first. My workouts this week were good, but not stupendous. I did like Fridays, because I burned through my weight training circuit fast, about 45 minutes. Heart rate was definately UP. I am going to do the same thing again tomorrow.

So I lost a 1/4 inch around my waist, for a total of 2.25 inches lost since the beginning of January. I'm now at 48.75 inches around my waist. I'm happy that I did this despite my less than stellar eating schedule. This week was slightly "pizza heavy" i.e. too many white flour carbs. My stated goal is to lose 2 inches every 4 weeks, so an average of a 1/2 inch per week. Over the next three weeks I'll have to lose more than 1/2 an inch a week to maintain that goal.

So this week I don't plan to eat any wheat/flour based carbs, so no bread, pasta etc. My "diet" will be lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. I'll be interested to see what happens next Saturday morning. By the way one other thing I'd like to mention. Since I've started this I have NOT counted any calories. I'm really relying on my ability to make largely good food choices, though it seems I'm still losing inches around my waist despite eating "clean" foods perhaps a little over 60% on average, versus my stated goal of 90%. This week I will aim for that 90%. I'm very interested in the results of next Saturdays "taping", after 5 days of being all in on my eating and exercise program.

So rant time. Just finished watching the Superbowl. The New England Patriots with a regular season 13-3 record, vs. the New York Giants with a regular season record of 9-7. The latter was the wildcard team. So many of you have heard me rant about this before but it absolutely pisses me off that a wild card team can squeak into the playoffs with single digit wins and play well enough to win 3 playoff games on the road and the Superbowl. I am not convinced we are seeing the BEST teams play. That is my point. I would have preferred that the Patriots had won, but if they were going to lose at least lose to a team such as the San Francisco 49'ers that had a 13-3 season. To me in my non nuanced understanding of the game we are looking at numbers. Numbers tell us who won the game, (team with the most points). So to me in football the regular season has to count. In the present system a team could possibly have a losing record, (say 7-9), and still win their division and possibly make it into a wildcard slot, win three more away games, and then take the Supebowl, say against a team that had a 12+ win season. I am not convinced as a fan, that the BEST teams, the ones with what I would say have at least a 10-6 season, are fairly being represented. So I would like to propose a few rule changes.

1.) Any team eligible for the playoffs must have a minimum of a 10-6 regular season wins, thus this becomes the minimum number to be the wildcard. If your team has less than this number, well your season is over, thank you for playing, we'll see you next year.

Some have said to me that the above isn't "fair" because some teams have harder schedules than others. Someone told me that the Patriots wins this season, came from teams that were below .500 in wins for their season. To this I say SO. It's not like the Patriots asked to play against these teams. They had the same opportunity to have better records, but blew it. Man up and play football, and get your wins.

2.) It should take a monumental effort for the wildcard team to go all the way and win the Superbowl. More than just playing 3 playoff games on the road. The difficulty for a 10-6 wildcard team should be palpable. Preference for advance should be given to the teams that have had a better record in the regular season "Any given Sunday" in the regular season is okay, but in the playoffs it is too random. So here are a couple of rules that wildcard teams advancing through the playoffs should have to abide by:

a.) On ALL 4th down plays they must go for the down, or a touch down. They are not allowed to punt. This rule gets really dicey for said wildcard team if they blow a 4th down, and are DEEP in their own territory. This rule remains in affect throughout the playoffs, but not the Superbowl.

b.) If they make it to the Superbowl then the above rule is replaced with the following rule, the wildcard team can ONLY score through touchdowns, and punting for the extra point. They are not allowed to kick field goals for 3 points at all.

c.) These rules are only for wildcard teams with a 10-6 regular season record, but become null en void if two teams are equally matched in regular season wins, say within a 1 game difference in wins during the regular season.

To me these crippling rules will almost guarantee that a wild card team will be knocked out early on, leaving the teams with solid double digit wins in the regular season to move on, thus assuring fans that they are seeing the best teams in the league compete, and one of them becoming the BEST by winning the Superbowl.

However if a wildcard team overcomes the playoff games on the road with the 4th down rule, and overcomes their Superbowl opponent, despite not being able to kick field goals, and scoring solely through touch downs, and extra point kicks, then too me that is a true David vs Goliath story, and despite all of those obstacles, that perhaps this wildcard team is the BEST in the league. As a fan I it would be easier to root for an underdog wild card team in the Superbowl. I think these rules changes would preserve the integrity of the game, make the regular season mean more, an almost guarantee to the fans that the trully best teams are being represented in the playoffs and the Superbowl.

I suppose if I was relying on pro football as a source of income, thus the more teams in the playoffs, the better, then I probably don't like these ideas. NFL are you listening?

Rant off, until next week.