Becoming Physically What We Already Are Mentally

Becoming Physically what we already are Mentally is probably the least obvious yet most important aspect of the program we design for ourselves. This principle forces us to look at why we want to lose weight and what we want to look like when we are done. It is important to note that those with eating disorders often look in the mirror and see what they do not want to see. So, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we do not want to see, we need to assess where we are at briefly, but dwell more on what we want to become. When we look in the mirror we want to  briefly see where are at, but more importantly we should imagine definitions forming and unwanted parts of us disappearing. This does two things, if we are honest with ourselves. First, it gives us a hope. We are looking for progress. Second, it locks in to our subconscious a blue print of where we want it to take us. So, be very careful and as detailed as you can when you program it into the subconscious. Always make it a positive image.

The subconscious mind is a powerful tool. It is like a heat seeking missile once we tell it what we want, it will find a way to get there for good or for bad. The subconscious mind is resourceful and creative and it has no limits to its potential possibilities. So, we must tell it what we want then listen as it guides us there. Once we are locked in to the subconscious we do not need a formal diet to tell us what and what not to eat, our body will start telling us what we should and shouldn't eat. It will start telling us if we are not exercising right, it will nudge us in one direction or another until we either tell it we no longer want that goal or until we comply with its demands. It is a good idea to expose ourselves to as many ideas as we can during this process because the subconscious will filter and relay information to our conscious mind, those things which are right for us. For example, as I did this, words like metabolism and fiber came to my mind.  I began doing some research on what they are and what they do. This led me to a list of different kinds of foods that, funny enough, I realized I was craving. I also noticed that by eating the things that were good for me the need for sweets either led me to better healthier alternatives, or the cravings were minimized.

Who we are is an important question we have to ask ourselves in the process of losing weight, because often times those of us who have gained a lot of extra pounds have made a conscious or subconscious decision to gain our weight. These are usually very emotional reasons not always logical. We have trained ourselves to eat more for comfort even though in the end eating for comfort does not solve the problems we are trying to fix with food. Not only that but our mindset when we eat for comfort tends to tell our body to hold onto it. Depression and anxiety have been linked to weight gain. Understanding this can be helpful in flipping that switch that will help us to eat less than we want. Instead of eating more learn how to be comforted by flavor rather than a full tummy. Then practice keeping the flavor in your mouth longer and savor it. Truly enjoy it, try to understand why that flavor brings you comfort.

Sleep is another subject that should be addressed when it comes to losing weight because it effects not only our mental effectiveness but also our physical effectiveness in losing weight. A tired body does not have the ability to exert itself nearly as well as a rested body. I have also found that my body seems to warm up faster in the mornings when I have gotten a good nights rest, which means my metabolism is more responsive. Mentally being awake is important especially when you are trying to push yourself. When we are exhausted our self doubts seem to have far more influence over our body. This particular principle is one that I continue to struggle through. I understand it in my head, but I am still working on getting it inside of me. Which tells me I have many more mental clicks to go before I have this all figured out. :)

Be Good! Be Kind! And Be Happy! Enjoy!

Becoming Physically what I already am Mentally.

Moving More- My thoughts on Exercise

At the beginning of my competition I was pretty much anti exercise routines. My thoughts were that I did not want to start something that I did not feel I could or would keep up. Too many exercise programs start you out with an hour of making yourself look and feel foolish. I have watched others attempt them and they end up with a boat load of exercise videos and or exercise equipment that sits and gathers dust because they feel they do not have time to do what they think it will take to become fit again. I didn't have the money nor the space in my home to do that, although I have a couple of videos and a couple of pieces of equipment that I have tried.

I have come to realize that those people on the commercials did not get on the commercials by using the equipment, they got on the commercials because they looked good to start with. It is easy to get caught in the trap thinking if you buy what they are selling I will become like them. Well, we all know that is what they are trying to do, but we continue to fall for it, and if it helps us get started it is worth it...I guess. 

Anyways, my philosophy is Eat Less and Move More. Becoming Physically what you already are Mentally. As the competition heated up I realized that not only did Move More mean to get up off my butt and move, but it meant move in different ways. So I started out simply by parking further away when I stopped at the store. I started sitting on an exercise ball while watching the television. I found the Biggest Loser 10 minute workouts. I just decided that I had to do more than just walk if I was going to stay in this competition. So I just started moving more in as many different ways as I could think of. Exercise routines have become a filler for me. I have done Tai Chi, swimming, jogging, hiking, walking, basketball, Biggest Loser's 10 minute workouts, as well as their Yoga, and Cardio Max routines. I have decided that I will just keep trying different types of movements, including dance, possibly martial arts, and biking. As I earn more freedom I will take the opportunity to try new ways of moving. I have learned that to keep being effective you have to change things up. Your muscles seem to get used to certain movements, and when they do the exercise seems to be less effective. Sometimes you have to try something else and then come back to those exercises you like the most. Most important about thing about Moving More is that you just keep trying until you find those exercises you like the most then you find some more and change them up. 

When you first start trying different forms of movement you may find yourself feeling very awkward and uncoordinated. I felt like the ugly duckling swimming before swans, so do not feel like you have to look graceful, just understand that moving more is your goal and graceful comes somewhere down the road...at least I hope it does I certainly don't think it has reached me yet, but I look better than when I started. 

Just keep moving that is what it is all about. When it becomes too easy that is when you can try to analyze what you are doing wrong, until then move until you sweat then sweat some more. 

One thing that did help as well was that I used a sauna suit on my big push days usually that was Fridays and Saturdays. I did add Thursdays in towards the end. The sauna suit maximized the heat my body was producing. This was particularly helpful, when I did not have a lot of time to build up my internal heat. 

MAKE SURE YOU DRINK LOTS OF WATER when you sweat a lot you need to keep yourself hydrated or you may undo the good you are doing. 

Still dropping this makes 51 lbs since January

If you have access to a gym or to a trainer my hats go off to you. I would take advantage of it. My approach was born out of lack of resources and a determination that I wanted to do something to get myself feeling better. I was tired of killing myself from the inside out and making excuses for why I wasn't able to breath, sleep, or have energy to do anything. I was tired of being depressed and knowing that I could do something about it. I was tired of looking down the road and seeing myself in an early grave or worse having poor health and suffering old age without a good foundation of fitness. 

I have always said that the stress of worrying will kill you faster than the weight you carry, but at some point the weight you carry is going to stress you right out of the game. So don't worry about your weight, just get up as start doing something a little more each day. Stop making excuses for why you can't do it and look for reasons why you can and should do it. If you do not have a reason why then find one and hold on to it. 

The benefits from losing weight goes far beyond the lbs you lose. What you get is your life back! What you get is your own slice of Freedom. And that freedom is priceless. 

Justice And Mercy Through Forgiveness

Forgiveness releases us from our offenders. The greater the emotional trauma they cause the greater the need to forgive, but the less inclined we may feel to forgive.
Forgiveness is God's gift to us so that we do not have to carry the burden of being a victim.

A victim is one who has suffered injury, whether that be physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, or otherwise.

In Doctrine & Covenants 64:10 we are told..."of you it is required to forgive all men."  That does not mean that justice will not be served, only that we give it to God to extract it.

Forgiving those whom have injured us allows us to progress beyond the injury. If we do not forgive those who trespass us we allow bitterness into our hearts. It is like drinking poison hoping our trespasser will die. By forgiving we release them from holding our emotions, our mind, and our spirit.

We have no power to inflict justice, but God does. However, He has no power to enforce justice until we give him that power through our own forgiveness.

Without faith we do not trust that God will see that justice is done so we have a tendency to carry with us the burden of thinking that we must bring justice about. Without faith we often feel that the balance of justice has been unfairly placed upon us.

God has given us the gift of being able to forgive others that we may experience the Mercy of God, that mercy being the relief from carrying that burden of justice.

Eat Less- My Thoughts On Dieting

At the beginning of our Biggest Loser challenge. I shared my thoughts on diet and exercise. I was not a big fan of either. Rather my opinion has been if you eat less and move more you should be able begin losing weight. This experiment is an on going process, but so far I have tested my plan and found it has worked well for me.
In the process of discovery I have somewhat refined or maybe just defined what Eating Less and Moving More means to me. In this entry I am going to share my discoveries on Eating Less.
First as part of eating less means you must recognize what you are eating. Sometimes it is not what we eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner that may be killing us. Sometimes it is the incidentals, those things you eat without even thinking about it, the pieces of candy from a candy bowl,  the snitching you do before you eat your meal. Sometimes it is the kinds of things you snack on. Some food is specifically designed to make you want to eat more. Everything adds up a little at a time. So, take an inventory of what you are eating.
Sometimes eating less means cutting your portions back from seconds and thirds to only eating one helping. I chose to use a smaller bowl and eating seconds only sometimes. I accomplished this by realizing that if I really liked something I did not have to eat it all right now. I sometimes would wait a half an hour to have my seconds. I also realized that when something tasted good leaving it in my mouth longer was more effective at satisfying my desire than eating more.  Another thing I realized was that if I liked it a lot I could either make it again or I could buy it again. It took the bite out of my desire to eat it all before it disappeared.
I also realized that if I limited what I could eat it left me feeling deprived and from previous experience that was asking for failure. If you feel guilty for cheating on your diet you are likely to drop the t off your diet and that mean killing it. Guilt is your enemy. No matter how you choose to deal with your eating you must avoid guilt at all cost. Guilt may cause you to gain 5 lbs even if your cheat was only 6oz. Realizing that your body has good craving and bad ones will help you also realize that it is not that hard to tell wish is which.
I also came to the conclusion that once I started eating less my body began to crave more good foods. I also began to look up the foods that I craved on the internet and discovered that many of the things that I was craving were foods that increased my metabolism. Higher metabolism means better calories are burned off easier. So, go on a mission of discovery. Find out about your cravings. Discover what your cravings will do for you or to you. Sweet is a powerful craving learn what you can do to satisfy that craving with good foods and you will find out that eating less is not so hard. Salty is another powerful craving that can be lessened by experimenting with herbs and spices or you can find Mrs. Dash seasonings, as well as I am sure many others. The key is you must learn to work with your cravings not against them.
Don't starve yourself. Eating less does not meaning not eating only controlling how much you eat. Plan your snacks eat slow, but eat something every couple of hours especially when you start to feel hunger. Don't let your body think it is starving, but don't think you have to eat a lot to stop feeling hungry. Eat a little then wait. Fat foods actually make you feel fuller for a longer period of time. I am finding that a small scoop of peanut butter is fairly satisfying.
If you eat for emotional comfort to deal with stress, you must understand that more than likely the reason you do not feel capable of dealing with stress is because of your eating. Comfort foods are a temporary solution for a permanent problem and in the end turns our emotional stress into physical stress as our body holds onto it.


The final thing I want to talk about is water intake. When I started my contest I drank lots of water. I used a 59oz container to measure my intake. I started out drinking almost 4 of those per day except on weekends. I found it harder to drink water on weekends because when I am not at work I do not always have immediate access to water. Water is good because it helps remove poisons released from your muscle tissue and fats cells through sweat and or urination. Drink lots of water. The bonus is that it helps you feel full faster just not for long.

Commit To Your Marriage

Sometimes it takes a commitment to the marriage to survive the pot holes that will happen along the way. Marriage is not easy. It requires work, forgiveness, and compassion as well as commitment. We are all weak at times and without a commitment to the marriage it is easy to find yourself uncommitted to your spouse or your spouse uncommitted to you.
When we were courting we relied heavily on making ourselves attractive to each other. Whether that was physically, mentally, spiritually, or otherwise we sought to impress each other. We couldn't think about being separated. We thought all we wanted was to spend time together. However, something terribly magical happens once you get married. All that time you thought you would have together suddenly dries up and disappears. Work and or school begins to demand more time. Between church callings, work, and the lovely bill collectors, the stress begins to mount. Suddenly all those things you had in common get forgotten and all the things you ignored, didn't know, or didn't want to think about come to the surface exposing you to the less flattering qualities of your spouse. Then comes finances. Suddenly your spouse begins to look...shall we say...not so attractive. At this point we look in the mirror and we start to question our own attractiveness.
So many things happen that distract us from each other, including the world's definition of marriage and family. No wonder divorce becomes an easy solution to our hectic life.
Without a commitment to marriage it is easy to fall out of love and see breaking up your family as a solution to the lack of feeling love toward your spouse. When you are committed to the marriage you may fall in and out of the feeling of love a few times and as long as abuse is not involved you can still understand the importance of the marriage. What a commitment to marriage really is, is a commitment to the third personage of your marital covenant...The Lord.

Reporting in Week 4 Post Competition

This past month has been difficult reflecting back it is probably the hardest month I face each year. Thanksgiving is a single days big meal. Christmas time really isn't that bad, a few more sweets than other times, but nothing I can not minimize the damage. January is when I tend to get depressed or be prone to it. But April starts off with a family breakfast and munch fest at my mom's house while watching General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is my youngest son's birthday on the 3rd of April so we usually go out to eat for that. Our Anniversary is on the 18th, and our oldest daughters birthday is on the 26th. This year we had all those things, plus we had a luncheon celebrating my youngest boys baptism. May we had a luncheon after my brothers baby was blessed as well as another luncheon to celebrate a baby blessing of some dear friends of ours. Follow that up with a funeral luncheon for my Aunt and a Mothers Day dinner at my sisters and I think I could have easily gained my weight back had I not kept my portions in check. I will admit that I struggled this month, but in the end as of Saturday morning the scale had not changed since the previous week. My low day was on Thursday morning when I weighed in just above 250 lbs. Unfortunately by Saturday morning I weighed in exactly the same as last week. Probably due to the lesson I learned while moving more.

Exercise this week consisted of some Yoga and some jogging. Wednesday was my peak performance for jogging. I started off on a 2 mile jog and ended up jogging 4.9 miles and I felt like I could have kept going...that is until morning came. It was in the morning that I began to realize a learning experience was being set up. It was apparent to me that in the morning I was having a difficult time moving and even stretching became difficult. Though your body can do it without warm ups and cool downs. It requires a lot more time to recover afterwards. I also learned that if you do not warm up before you stretch, your muscles do not want to stretch willingly. Friday's stretches did not feel very effective either, but I went jogging for a mile and found myself feeling okay, but not great. As I was getting dressed my back felt like it was trying to slip a disc in my lower back. I knew exactly what had happened when I felt it. the muscles where just too tight. A trip to the Chiropractors and I was back on track, but I was a little behind on the exercises. Sweat has been hard to come by the last couple of weeks. I have put in some good workouts, but I don't think I have challenged myself enough. All in all I feel pretty good...not great, but pretty good about this week.

Distractions are bound to happen. Don't feel guilty. Guilt is an emotion prone not only to weigh you down spiritually, but physically as well. Be kind to yourself and maintain an eye of faith on your goal. Believe it will happen and it will. Though my weight has not gone down my clothes are definitely telling a different story and I continue to become Physically what I already am Mentally.

Using weight as your sole indicator as to whether you are going to be happy or not, is not a good idea. Weight is a good goal only if you recognize that weight is not what your real goal is. We want to be able to fit into nicer clothes, we want to breath better, we want to look better, we want more energy, we want better health, or we want to conquer our appetites. In other words we are looking to increase our freedom. That is why we want to lose weight. If we get what we really want we will recognize that Eating Less and Moving More is how we get and keep what we really want, and we will appreciate the process.

No Social Freedom Without Financial Freedom

Some espouse the idea of total social freedom but they believe that wealth should be redistributed. Is this not a contradiction in and of itself? How can you enforce one morality while giving a pass to all others. Or how can you promote one immorality over another? What would happen to justice? At what point are Social and Financial  issues separate?
I may not like what someone does with their money, but when do I have the right to take it from them, because I feel they have abused their rights? Many people abuse their social rights and commit crimes doing it. Would we simply turn the other cheek and allow other social depravities to run rampant?
As a society we have laws that are suppose to protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when someone breaks those laws they are suppose to be punished. To simply deem someone immoral or illegal because of their financial status is itself immoral. We can not deem someone immoral just because we think they are doing something wrong, otherwise we would have chaos.
You can not have social freedom without financial freedom. A man can not be forced to change his heart without the agency to do so. Whether that heart is bad socially or financially. Each man must work out his own salvation and if he tries to work out someone else's salvation he will lose his own. It is not our job to see that our brother does right, only that he has the opportunity to do so.

Reporting in Week 3 Post Competition

My third week of post competition has gone better than I expected. I wanted to jog more this week, but weather kinda put a damper on things. So, some jogging, some Biggest Loser 10 minute workouts, and some Yoga, and I feel like I put myself back on track. I am finding that a good work out in the morning is good to get the metabolism kicked in, but I have to either work longer than my usual 20-30 minutes in the morning, or I have to add something like an extra jog in the evening once or twice a week when I hit a plateau. So, Saturday evenings 3.5 miles really helped me get back on track.
As for Eating less I have to say this week was a challenge with Baby blessing parties, and the baptismal luncheon for my youngest son, there was plenty of opportunity to go over board, but I felt I did okay for the most part. I ended the day with my run and a soak in a jetted tub.

I finally decided that Saturday mornings are just not going to be possible every week for weigh ins so, I am going to weigh in whenever I can and post it for my own accountability.
I am going to also start turning my focus from reporting each week to more detailed tips on my portion control, mental clicks, and moving more. If you have questions about specifics let me know and I will try to answer them as best I can.
Remember, the more good you do to your body the more good your body will be able to do for you. Freedom is the goal.
When you look in the mirror stop looking at what you do not want to see, but look at what you want to see. The mirror will become your friend instead of your enemy.