Planning to ship a couple of boxes to some friends in France, my wife asked me to help her weigh them to get an idea of how much this would cost. Having only a bathroom scale and the boxes being to big to fit on them we decided I would weigh myself, and then I would hold onto a box – the difference between me and me with the box should be the weight of the box.
200 pounds!
How can I weight 200 pounds?
It’s true I have been weighing in at about 190 pounds for the last several weeks, but where did the extra ten pounds come in?
The blame lies somewhere at the office. Like so many others I have a job that keeps me sitting sedentary for most of the day. The hours of sitting are moved along with mouth fulls of junk food: carbonated soda, salty chips, chocolate bars and doughnuts.
I have a moving and rather odd shift that doesn’t allow for too many daylight hours in which I can be active. By the time I do get home, I’m often so exhausted that all I want to do is sit on the couch and vegetate.
Even on a day like today when my shift gets off early and I start the day with plans of eating right and maybe hitting the gym on my way home I am sabotaged by the local vending lady and her pies.
As a way to say thank you for using her services, she brought in a dozen or so lovely, delicious pies. Chocolate pies, lemon pies and scrumptious, coconut cream pies.
How could I resist?
It’s like this all the time. Folks go to Steak and Shake and pick me up a caramel vanilla milk shake. The boss brings in pastries for a Friday morning meeting. One of the supervisor orders pizza for her meeting. On and on it is a steady stream of sugar, salts and fats paraded in front of my useless will power.
I used to live on the other side of town and so would bring my lunch to work. I’d spend the rest of my lunch hour taking power walks down the sidewalk. I now live about a mile away and take the five minute drive home for lunch. Which means I check my e-mail, and play a quick game of Zuma ending my hour with a quick meal and absolutely no exercise.
200 pounds of this and I have got to find a better way. I have vowed to take my lunch to work each day, a sandwich or a salad. I’m ordering an i-Pod which I plan to fill with good tunes and some audio books which will motivate me to walk again. Then I’m swearing off sodas (again.) Sodas are killer. I despise coffee so soda has become my method of choice for my caffeine addiction. If I can manage to get over the three day hump of no caffeine and convince my body I wake up better, and healthier with a glass of juice or some herbal tea.
I’ve always known I’d never make a good muscle bound stud. I don’t have the personality for it. Seeing that scale tip the 200 mark has punched me in the solar plexus. If I can’t be on the cover of Muscle Magazine, I hope I can at least lose a few pounds and become more healthy.
21 comments:
ah Brew,my dear friend...
Ironically, I was a bit scared this morning because I have gone down from 160 to 155...
Look man, I used to weigh 190 - 195... i thought nothing of it, until I saw a photo of myself. My face and my gut. Then I went swimming with my brother (Who was on the I-am_going_through-a-divorce diet) and said "I want to look like that.
I, too, work in an office where little debbies are available at any given time in abundance. Before I started a diet, I would just grab one, thoughtlessly and eat it. Was I hungry? no. Was I craving it? no. I had never resisted anything. I never had to, I had a high metabolism.
But we are 30 now dude... I decided to follow the South Beach Diet. It SUCKED. The first 2 weeks were tourture. It forces you to purge the bad carbs and sugars from your body. You cant even have an apple because it has sugar in it (just the 1st 2 weeks). Yet, amazingly enough, not having any sugar makes your body no longer crave it.
After the first 2 weeks I went from a 36 waist to a 34 waist.
Long story short, i no longer follow "The diet" I just live and eat differently BECAUSE of the diet. The results were great and I dont want to go back to the way I was. Like I said, I wiegh 155 now, have room in 32 inch jeans and feel great.
I pretty much eat anything I want, but dont desire large portions or sweets anymore. I have replaced white potatoes with sweet once (less carbs, more fiber), never eat white rice, never eat white bread (only the high fiber or whole GRAIN bread... dont be fooled by 'whole wheat', it is typically just brown white flour.)
anyway, thats my tip. I wish you luck my friend. Walking and running is pretty much a staple to losing wieght. But you have to resist sweets. Ill challenge you to resist sweets for 2 weeks. Dont drink fruit juice either. If you desire fruit, eat fruit, not a glass of juice.
I was up to around 190 when we moved down here.
After years of working nights, my body had been completely screwed up. I exercised, ate well, etc. But, something about working that schedule just wouldn't let me be healthy.
Looking back, it was probably more due to the fact that those snacks at work sneaked in and I was sitting so much of the time.
Fortunately, I'm on a Regular Joe's schedule now. I eat a granola bar and have some green tea (provided by our company!) for breakfast, go for a jog around 10 AM and come back to work, eat some good homemade leftovers, had home around 4 to play with Luke, hang with Rachel, and make sure plant outside are watered...
What I'm getting at is that a routine helps immensely. If there's any way for you to form a plan and stick by it, do it.
I am between 175 and 180 now and way healthier. It just took planning and discipline.
An MP3 player helps, too...
Something else I started doing is getting up about every half hour and walking around the building.
There are some long halls in our facility that are very conducive to walking a pretty good distance.
I get up, hit the restroom and take the long way back to my desk.
It takes the stress (big contributor to weight gain) and edge off and allows you to get away from the harsh light of the computer and office.
Heck, take a walk in the sunshine often, too. Whatever gets you up and moving and unstressed is good!
Sipper you go for a jog at 10? When do you get to work so that you’re doing all this and getting home around 4?
I think the hardest part for me was, agian, all those years of me never having to restrict what I eat and just eating it.
Once I got past that barrier, it was easy. But doing that is not only good for your health, but your your mind. Being able to resist things, particularly food, can help you develope a stronger mind and make you stornger in many other ways.
Sip knows I love chocolate now and then and will take a helping of something unhealthy once in a while, but over all I will resist. Heck, when they cook burgers I will typically bring my own whole wheat buns! Geek, I know. Sadly I have almost learned to ENJOY a hamburn with no bun. I am serious, I sometimes find the bread takes away from teh flavor of the burger.
One thing that kept me going ont eh south beach diet was I kept telling myself "Well, i know i am not going to STARVE to death..." I would eat what I was told to eat and actually felt full... yet my mind thought I was missing out on something....
I get to work around 7.
I jog 3 days a week.
Takes me about 45 minutes from the time I leave to change till the time I come back to my desk.
I used to wait to jog till I got home, but I'd rather spend time with Luke watering flowers and take walks with him and Rachel.
I work 8 hour days except for maybe one day a week when I'll work 9 hours. Then, I leave early on Fridays.
40 hours per week unless there's an emergency, which there never is, unless we're burning on a release.
Anyway, I schedule stuff down to the gnat's behind. My work gets done, I stay healthy, and most of all I get family time.
I also take 5-10 minutes 3 days a week to go out back of the building and knock out some push ups.
I generally do 4 sets of 25 = 100 push ups.
Every little bit counts, my friends!
Ahhh, Brew. I too feel your pain. All you sub 200 pounders make me sick. I weighed in most recently at 235. Yeah, I'm 6'4, but I'm still fat. Bottom line, I am weening myself off of 2 major things.
#1 - Cokes & sweet tea
#2 - Eating out so much
Those are the two things that I think kill me the most.
I saw Eric Lyons for the first time in about 6 or 7 months (he works at AP, this was about a year ago) and he had lost a good bit of weight. I asked him his secret, was he working out, running, what was it? He said no exercise, he had just stopped drinking anything but water and stopped eating sweets.
That's my plan for losing weight. No South Beach Diet, just plain old eating better. Of course I'll exercise too.
Excellent plan, Ryan!
I always stress excercise, too.
As you age, your metabolism slowws, so it's harder and harder to keep off weight by simply eating better.
There's also the matter that everyone begins to lose 1/2 a pound of muscle after the age of 40. So, increasing and maintaining muscle now and after 40 is extremely important.
Bone density is dependent on exercise, too. You can drink all the milk and eat all the brocolli you want. If you don't exercise, your bone mass will flit away as rain on hot pavement.
Also, eating breakfast gets your metabolism started. Some people think that by skipping breakfast, this will help cut down. Wrong, breakfast IS the most important meal of the day for more than one reason.
Thats all I do now. I just needed the south beach diet to "train" me to eat better. People ask me if i am still on it... I hesitate to say "no" cuz that makes me sound like a quitter, but actually "Phase 3" of the south beach diet is pretty much "Eat whatever you want, just be smart" which is what I am now... I MIGHT have a coke or tea or a glass of juice 1 or 2 times a month, but water is all i typically drink, and it is cheaper to order water when you eat out!
Yes!
Rachel and I have both gone to strictly water when we eat out.
We still do tea at home and we have juice sometimes, but water will easily knock $4-$5 off a meal if you eat out.
We also split most of our meals when we eat out, so that cuts calories and price! And, we still fill up because most restaurants give you way too much food anyway.
Yeah, you could always split something at Yeung's Kitchen. They give you a ton of food when you order from there.
Cool, Ryan!
We can't do it, though. Rachel's allergic to monosodium glutemate (MSG). It's in pretty much all Chinese food.
I think that's another reason we eat pretty well. We have to prepare all of our meals at home from whole food since all the boxed meals (Rice a Roni, Hamburger Helper, etc.) have MSG.
As a result, our meals are very healthy. But, we still keep sweets around...
Thanks my fat friends. I'm generally anti any type of diet. So many of them are fake, and unhealthy. Plus I like the idea of doing it myself, just eat right and exercise.
But that's hard sometimes. The south beach things sounds pretty ok, so maybe I'll do that.
Hey, he called us fat!
I got something fat for you...
Kidding, Brew!
Yeah man, eating right and exercise are good.
First thing is to have a plan though. If you don't have a plan to reach your goals, you probably won't go anywhere.
Write down what your goals are and devise a plan to get there. Then, work the plan! Having a partner is good, too. So, if you can get Amy involved, that's even better.
Keep us posted on your process.
Every doctor that I have spoken too has said the south beach is the healthiest of them all because you CAN eat carbs... you arent eating a plate of cheese, eggs and a burger...
However, be warned, youll hate life the first two weeks... if you can make it that far you are on the right road... after the next two weeks it gets loads easier, then, when you have established a routine, you pretty much eat what you want...
we had a gig tonight and got to eat free food at the church... dessert included...
I literally went back for dessert after I ate my meal, grabbed a plate, looked it all over, and then thought "It just doesnt appeal to me..." and left the plate...
Thats the best thing the SBD has done for me... ive lost alot of cravings...
but eat right and exercise is good, plus itll save you money on the book...
Also, dont keep snacks in the house, or cokes in the house...
For the past few weeks I've been on the "junk food in moderation, don't eat if you're not hungry" diet.
Most of the time, I don't want those things anyway. Like if I have an hour to get from work to school, I will 98% of the time get Subway instead of McDonald's. I've also been trying to drink more water instead of coke, and if I do get a coke, I won't get a refill. I'm feeling much better than I used to! I can't give up carbs, though. I live by bread alone. (just joshin)
the less bread I eat, the more I realize how it just gets in the way of the actual food. It has actually become quite tasteless to me for the most part...
Lemon pies reminds me of my 21st birthday....
Brew, do you remember celebrating my 21st birthday with me? Just you and I in a Waffle House. You bought me a slice of lemon pie? To which I thought was the greatest thing on earth, what-with us both being 2 poor college students, that was a rare thing to happen. Was afraid youd be broke for the rest of the week after that.
thanks! Glad we didnt get drunk or anything, then I wouldnt remember it.
Wow! A kingly gift! Had Mullins been there, he would have gotten an extra for free...
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