A New Beginning- The Next Time You See Me......

Well the contest has come and gone and now it is time to renew my commitment. As I started this competition I realized that I would have to make some changes that I could live with, or I would end up right back where I started from. So, though the competition is over the journey is just begun. My next goal is to get to 220lbs and then evaluate whether or not to go lower. I weighed 220 as a senior in High School, but when I am done I will probably be a lot more firm than I was in High School. So we shall continue reporting in as I learn along the way....

This morning DeeAnn and I got up and together we started a new chapter in our lives. As we dawned our shoes and a our sweat jackets we stretched, walked out the door, and we started jogging together. I have never been so proud of my wife as I watched her struggle past her pain and jogged her first 1/2 mile. I then jogged another half mile with DeeAnn walking/jogging behind me.

The greatest thing I have learned in this contest is that I could do it. I don't need a gym membership, nor do I need a nutritionist or a trainer. What I did need was the will to start. Once I had the will to start then I needed the hope of finishing. Another thing I learned was that God has given me information to prepare me for this very journey and my bet is that when you make your decision to do the same you will begin to remember things that will help you as well. Mental clicks, are those ideas, ah has, or light bulbs that suddenly make things make sense, and will help you solidify your commitment to yourself.

Making myself accountable to my friends on facebook did two things. First it created an expectation of success in myself and in others. And second, it set me up to be encouraged, because I know my friends. Encouragement gave me the energy to do a little bit more than I thought I could, because deep inside I knew that it was giving inspiration and encouragement back to my friends.
As you lose weight you begin to realize the freedoms that you gave up by allowing yourself to get in such poor health. You also begin to respect yourself for doing what you know you should. Is there a value you can put on that? I sure can't.

I still feel that stressing out about weight will kill you faster than the weight itself, but certainly the stress of the weight you carry will kill you. So, don't stress about it, just get up off the couch and start Moving More and Eating Less. Find out for yourself what it means to be free of the emotional crap you are literally carrying with you. It is time to get out and see more of what God has given us by Eating Less and Moving More. Don't Give Up on Yourself!

Eating Less and Moving More and More. 

Becoming Physically what You already already are Mentally.

Reporting in Week 12- The Final Judgement

Before and After
I am The Biggest Loser 

This is the final week of the contest. However it is not the final week of my journey. What started as a fun competition has turned into a life changing experience. From having a hard time walking up stairs to jogging 5 miles without stopping this week has given me the confidence that I can do whatever I want to push myself to do.
I am not a health guru and I can not say what I have done is "technically" correct, but I truly believe that if you listen to that voice inside of you it will tell you what you need to do to get started. It doesn't take much, but it will ask you to do a little more than you think you can. In my case it asked me to give it 10 minutes and I answered the challenge. I have had my struggles and in reading my blog you may see those struggles, but in the end I have been able to push through and conquer myself.
We will begin our report on Saturday this week. With General Conference comes some traditions that might have spelled danger for me. After Priesthood Session my brothers and I have a tradition of going to Dairy Queen for ice cream. I happen to like the Pecan Mudslide. However, this time I ordered a small Hawaiian blizzard substituting banana for strawberry, I ate only half of it. On Sunday we have breakfast together, biscuits and gravy, french toast, bacon, eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, and fruit. Normally this is a challenge but this year I took one of each and ate more fruit...okay I ate more than one piece of bacon, but the protein was necessary for my workouts this week.
Monday started out with a mile jog. It was Tuesday that I found out how close the race really was so I jogged 2 miles in the morning with my sauna suit on. After work I sent DeeAnn home with our van leaving 5 miles between me and home. The clouds were rolling in for our next storm so I jogged the 5 miles without stopping it took me just over an hour and at the end of the jog I continued my traditional 75 yd sprint. That I felt was a turning point. On Wednesday I dawned the sauna suit and jogged my 2 miles. That was probably the hardest 2 miles I have jogged yet. At work I worked my abs pretty hard on my exercise ball. On Thursday morning I jogged the 2 mile rout again with my sauna suit. On Friday I was going to treat this day as a last chance opportunity and take half a day off of work, but circumstances did not allow it. I ended up doing the full 3rd week Biggest Loser Yoga with my sauna suit on. I was going to jog as well but weather was against me. So, when I came home from work an opportunity to run opened up and I jogged my 2 miles before heading to the West Valley Rec Center to have some fun with the family in the pool. I swam 4 or 5 laps and did some misc. exercises along with playing in kiddy pool with the boys. Saturday I was unable to jog again, but I dawned the sauna suit and did the Biggest Loser Cardio Max with my buddy Bob. I tried to go through the second work out but I was completely drained at the end of the first. I thought I would try the Biggest Looser Yoga to finish my work out, but I got through the warm ups and I had no ability to balance. My legs were done.
This week my 2 mile jogs were almost harder mentally than my 5 mile jog. The 5 mile jog was harder to start and easy to finish, while the 2 miles were easy to start but harder to finish. I went through more teeshirts this week and have never sweated so much except maybe during High School two-a-days in the August heat.
My goal was to lose 6lbs that would make it a 2 percentage loss and I figure that would be pretty hard to beat at any level. Funny thing was I kept thinking that I weighed in at 260 lbs last week. Mentally I was already there. So when I weighed in I was pleasantly surprised with my second biggest weight loss since week number one. So the finally weigh in....

Final Weigh ins 254.4 lbs making my total
weight loss for 12 weeks 46.4 lbs
Eating Less and Moving More
Becoming Physically what I already am Mentally! 

Flirting With Temptation

Flirting with temptation is like seeing how close you can get to a fire before you get burned. The premise of your experiment is designed that you burn yourself. Not too smart when you look at it that way, is it?

Sometimes we have to learn the hard way, but more often than not we can look around us and make our choices based on observation. A scientist uses rats to experiment on because he knows that what he is doing could be harmful. Yet we seem to know that somethings are harmful to ourselves and we do it anyways. 

When we think we are the exception we simply become another statistic.  There are no exceptions when we deal with the devil. If we want to be the exception we should strive to be exceptional.

Divorce Is No Savior

When our hopes and dreams of a happily ever after are shattered by the nightmarish aspects of reality, where do we turn for help? When sickness enters our marriage, whether physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial, where do we look for healing? If divorce is necessary, are we looking for divorce to save us?


While divorce is necessary at times, if we look for it to be our savior, we may find that it is anything but our savior. Divorce may break our legal bond. However, if we have children, it does not release us from our common responsibility of parenting. And we will still have to work together in raising those children. Divorce only complicates that responsibility.

Divorce is a great gamble, sometimes it is necessary to protect our children or ourselves from physical or mental harm. However we must measure the consequences of staying verses the consequences of leaving. Often we want to ignore the consequences that we may face on the other side of divorce. Sometimes we may benefit from the divorce, but it may be at the expense of our children. It is hard to measure the damage our children experience when we seek divorce for our own peace.

Is divorce our savior? No. Can it bring healing? No. Divorce has no power to heal. Divorce has no power to alleviate our pain. There is only one source of healing and that is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is only through him that we can begin our healing process. Often times we look at the source of our pain as being our spouse, and by getting rid of them we can get rid of our pain. However the actual pain is within us, and when they are gone we can no longer blame them, but we still have the pain. And the danger is in thinking, they are the only one who needs to repent and call on the atonement to change.

There are certain phrases that may expose the reality of who we have chosen as our savior. Phrases such as; "I just need to get away from them so I can heal" or "I just need to get divorced so I can move on with my life,"  then we may need to ask ourself who our savior is? The legal action of divorce is not that difficult, it is a signature on a paper and a declaration of divorcement. The consequences however, are not so simple.

To choose Christ as the Savior of our marriage is not easy, it requires more than physical work. It requires our faith, our forgiveness, our patience, our willingness to try one more time than we may think we can. It will require all we have to submit to the will of God. But in the end we will become a better, happier person whether our marriage works or not. And if our marriage does not work we can honestly say we have done everything possible. And that will help in the healing process.

If divorce is needed to save ourselves or our children from harm then we must do what we have to do. But, if we need healing, we can not turn to divorce. We must turn to God and through the Atonement of Christ we will find the strength to be healed.

When is it okay to get divorced? I can't say. But I can say this, I truly believe God would like to heal your marriage before he accepts your divorce. 

Reporting Week 11

This week was good. Sunday was Fast Sunday and we participated in a Break-the-fast at the church. I think potlucks are good to have once in awhile. The hard part is portioning things out. However, I feel that my new attitude toward food is working for me. I do not starve myself. I am conscious of calories, but not obsessed by them. I pay more attention to how I feel as I am eating. I never have eaten a ton of junk food, but I have cut back considerably. I use to drink a can or 2 of soda per day. I don't do that anymore. Water is good too me and good for me. I am not afraid to drink a soda once in awhile, but I can't think of why. We as a family are eating better, not a real big change in menu, but have added a few more vegetables to our plates.

Moving more has come to mean more in that I am realizing that you have to mix things up or not just move more, but move in more different ways. Thus far in my journey I have done cardio, Tai-Chi, exercise ball, yoga, upper body, lower body, abs, swimming, walking, and jogging as an arsenal of methods to move more. I still have other methods that I think I will explore. As I get lighter my ability to move in different ways increases. I do not have money for a gym membership so I am doing this all on my own. So, if I can do it just about anybody can do it with a little self motivation. I am not generally a self motivated kind of guy so it does not take a lot if you focus on the feeling of being healthier. I look forward to hiking this summer.

As I have watched myself melting in the mirror I can see the vision of what I saw from the beginning happening. As I shed pounds I have found that I have lost more than weight, I have lost some bad habits along the way. I have also lost some poor self images that I have created for myself. There is a lot of work still to go, but I am beginning to see myself as capable of more than I thought I ever could be before.

This week my primary form of exercise was jogging. It started off slow with a .5 mile jog, but increased everyday until Saturday when I jogged 3miles without walking and at the end of each run this week I ended by running the last 75 to 100 yards. I thinking that I might be able to enter a 1/2 marathon by Fall of this year.

This week I also actually added sleep as part of my routine. I set 10:00pm as my goal and made it to bed before 10:30 nearly every night. I still had a hard time waking up in the morning, but I felt better all day long.

Some of the benefits I have found so far. I don't huff and puff walking up stairs. I can touch my toes without interference. I can tie my shoe while standing up. My asthma has decreased significantly. I can get closer to my wife when I hug her :) I can fit in clothes that I have not been able to wear for a long time. In fact, I may have to go shopping soon. I feel like healthier. I feel more capable of dealing with things more often. I feel younger, more agile, and limber. I have more energy, and I sleep better.

262 lbs still dropping.
That makes my running total 38 lbs lost since January 15th of 2011

Eat Less, Move More. Becoming Physically what you already are Mentally.

Don't Go There

Often times we approach God with the desires of our heart. When God tells us no we plead with him and ask him to reconsider his answer. About this time is when we should be questioning our own insanity, but sadly we often do not. God finally begins a conversation with us and says something like, "Well, you could do that, but..." Suddenly we get up off our knees mid sentence thanking God for his time. We turn to our friends all excited like and say, "God told me I should."

At this point anyone who knows God begins to see what has happened, but it is hard to reason with someone who has picked their poison. At this point we become afraid to go back to God because we know darn well we are going to get the other end of that "but." So, every time God tries to get our attention we do the, "la, la, la, la, I can't hear you, but thanks for letting me..." 

So we go ahead and do what we want. Now come the consequences and we go squealing back to God saying, "I don't understand! You told me I could. Now you are punishing me??? I don't know if I want to believe in you any more." At this point God is shaking his head saying, "What good does it do to believe in me if you don't hear  me anyways?" 

It is okay not to want to hear the right answer from God so long as you are willing to hear the right answer from God. Realize that God knows more than you do and he wants your happiness, in some case, more than you do. He has given us guidance and proven principles to live by. Don't think that you are the exception to the rule try to see why you are the rule. You will find your life much happier for it.

Reporting in Week 10

This week started off a little slow. Last week with my knees not feeling good I was looking forward to returning to my exercise programs. However, on Monday evening I decided to bench press my sons and my daughters friend. That did not go to well. My shoulders are definitely a weak spot for me so, even though my chest could press it my shoulders didn't like it. So, in order to keep up my moving more. I decided to start jogging. I started Wednesday and decided that I would just try to jog as far as I could without stopping. I wasn't sure how far it was around our block, but I figured it was at least .3 miles. I made it all the way around once and walked the second. My lungs were on fire. On Thursday I decided to do the same, but I made it another 100 yards or so before walking and returned to jogging after about another 50 yards and made it the rest of the way home. Friday, I made it twice around without stopping and only a 75 yard walk before finishing on a jog. Total distance ended up being 1.6 miles in 18 minutes. Saturday I stepped it up to just over 2 miles jogging the whole way. At home I started the Biggest Loser Yoga dvd and was able to get through the stretches only before I had to get ready for weigh ins.

End of Week 10 Still going down.

I feel really good about my Eating Less. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened this week. Just more of the same except I did eat more salads and made sure that I ate more salad on Thursday and Friday. Thursdays seem to be my peek day for weigh ins. I think I weigh-in in the morning sometimes 2-3 lbs lighter on Thursdays. Fridays I then get the munchies. So, I think I will have to figure out how to read my body's needs better for Friday. I really thought after weighing in this morning on my home scale that I might have gained weight this week but once again. I lost. In fact it was one of my biggest losses in the last month. Feeling good!

Do Not Underestimate The Need For Sleep

This week I have been trying to figure out my mental trigger for finding a healthier sleeping pattern. I have for most of my life fought going to bed at a descent time. Some might say that 11:00pm-12:00am is not bad, but I have always known that it is not healthy on the norm to go to bed that late and wake up at 6:00am or 7:00am in the morning. I never have felt very rested and have probably suffered some with my health due to my sleeping habits.

Anyways I started thinking about the triggers I have found to help me with my eating habits and my exercising. I talked to my wife about sleep and it started me thinking about the benefits of sleep in the weight loss process.

I am a firm believer that you must ask the right questions to get the right answers. So, that lead me to the thought that in the overnight I can sometimes lose 6 or 7 lbs just in sleeping. I am not sure how that works I am not a scientist, but as a thinker it lead me to the question why? And that question lead me to the thought that weight is a stress on the body, and stress has a correlation with weight gain. When we allow our body to recover from the stresses of life through sleep we allow our body to work more efficiently. When we cut our sleep short we cause our body to go into distress and one of the ways our body deals with distress is holding onto fat. That is not the only problem that too little sleep can cause, but for this discussion it is very relevant. Without sleep our body does not have the opportunity to reset.

When we sleep it signals our bodies night crew to come in and fix what the day crew messed up.
As I look back maybe it is the fear of the dark that I suffered as a child that got me into a bad habit of staying up late. Maybe it was just wanting to know what was going on around me. I don't know, but what I do know is I am going to do my best to go to sleep at 10:00 every night and test the thoughts that have come to me. Which means it is time for me to go to bed now.

  

Humility The Key To Knowledge

Humility is the key to knowledge. While there are absolute truths that do exist we can spend a life time learning all there is to know about them. When we declare within ourselves that we are all knowing we elevate ourselves to a position we have not earned. Until God himself declares the end of knowledge, we should not. That we can not comprehend past our own knowledge does not make it the end of all knowledge.
Humility deepens our understanding and prepares us to learn what God knows.

Reporting in Week 9

This week has been interesting. After last week my knees were feeling quite sore. So, this week I tried to avoid the heavy exercises, well, at least the cardio. I did do Tia Chi on Monday and Tuesday. Friday, I did a 10 minute workout is all. I actually have missed the workouts and am looking forward to returning to regular exercises next week. I am thinking that I need to change things up more often. I going to add more types of movements to my menu of exercises. I am looking forward to the warmer weather so that I can start walking more.
I have been worried that by taking the time off I might not lose weight, but I felt that I needed to give my body that time to heal so that I can make another big push over the next three weeks. Moving more has meant doing a lot more stretches and playing on the exercise ball. Saturday I will play basketball for my workout.
I decided that I might be drinking just a little too much water as well. I had gotten up to 4 to 4 1/2 x 59floz of water. I decided to cut that back to about 3 x 59floz. I was spending too much time running to the restroom, but I think I might have been retaining some of that water. Not a lot but some. So, I am trying to listen more to my bodies request for more or less.

Week 9 still dropping
Eat Less Move More
Becoming Physically what I already am Mentally

I feel like my body is locked into the mental image that I see myself becoming. It will do whatever it takes to get me where I have told it to go.

Japan An Example Of Moral Dignity

I do not think that we can see what has happened in Japan and not feel a sense of shock and trauma ourselves. I personally can not fathom just what has happened to them physically yet alone emotionally. However the more I see how they are reacting to the situation the more I realize that these people are special. They are showing the world an example of godliness.
Here in America, and elsewhere through out the world we have heard about the looting and chaos that ensues after a disaster. We have stories of compassion and heroisms as well. However, in Japan we hear only stories of compassion and unselfishness, of moral dignity. The lack of riots, and the lack of hostility one towards another should be more news worthy than the nuclear troubles they are having, not trying to minimize the dangers they face, but to magnify the godlike qualities of man
I believe it is this moral dignity that will be required if America is to restore itself to true greatness. May each of us resolve to remain morally dignified in the face of disaster. God bless the Japanese people.

Reporting in Week 8

This week felt good. I was not about to allow myself not to reach my goal of 269 lbs, but Monday through Thursday each morning it seemed that my scale would not budge for 3 weeks it seemed to want to hover over the same numbers and on Saturday morning my workouts would be squeak me a couple of lbs for weigh ins, but I felt like I was standing still. So this week I had to make a new resolve to do what ever it took to hit my next goal. So, I realized that I can't eat much less. So, I figured that I would have to step it up on the Move More side of my plan. I must have reached a maintenance level, which is good to know. I don't want to do more than I think I can do after the competition, but I am realizing that I can do a little more than I thought I could.

Normally I have made Friday and Saturday my big push days. Because of the trouble I have been having making the scale move I decided that I would do something Thursday night. Actually I didn't decide so much as I just started jogging in place while watching Man vs Wild. I was just going to try and break a sweat, but then I just kept going. In my mind I heard that it takes about 20 minutes before we start burning fat, so I just kept jogging in place. I mixed it up with a side step or two some high knees, etc., nothing real strenuous, but enough to keep me sweating. I ended up jogging in place for between 45 minutes to an hour. On Friday morning I put on my sauna suit and put in the Biggest Loser Cardio Max dvd and pushed myself. I am not sure how it will go this weigh in, but I am beginning to enjoy Moving More.
Eating Less has not changed a lot, although I am thinking that I need more salads. I have not eaten a lot of heavy food, but salads sound good to me right now.
This week the Girl Scout cookies came in and although the temptation has been great I really want to set my new goal at 260 lbs, so I have only eaten one with a cup of milk. I will reward myself after I reach my next goal.
I love my wheat thins and cottage cheese and sour cream with Ranch powder mix. One of the flavors I crave is the sour tang, and Ranch powder seems to provide that for me. I also tried something new on Wednesday. I cut up and apple with butter and added Cinnamon I fried it until it looked like the apples where starting to get just a little crispy on the outside then I added a drizzling of honey...That was tasty. Someday I will put a little ice cream on top, but for now it is good all by itself.
Another thing that I have started to do is mix 1 tsp of cinnamon and 2 Tbls of honey in 8oz of hot tap water and drinking it in the morning and evening. I have added a little bit of tobasco sauce in as well a couple of times. I added this to my routine as the result of an email and a little searching on my own. Some studies have shown that honey and cinnamon are good for a lot of things weight loss included. So, I thought I would try it. It makes sense to me that it might as when I drink it brings me closer to perspiring and makes it easier to perspire when I take it  before my work out. So, for now I will stick with it.

Not rocket speed, but still dropping.

Emotional Weight Loss

I find myself reviewing my Mind Body Connection class often these days. This past weekend I had an emotional melt down. It was like the perfect storm of doom and gloom that crashed in on me and I did not handle it well. Without divulging the details of my tantrum. I will just say that I felt completely overwhelmed with unwanted emotions.
I remember in my class that we talked about how our body will store memories and emotions within the cells of our body. Our teacher talked about how many times, when message therapy was performed it would cause people to have emotional reactions that seemed completely random.
I knew that there was a good possibility this breakdown was simply part of losing weight. However, it was so overwhelming that I could not control myself. I knelt down and prayed, and it seemed the harder I tried to pray the more angry I got. I pleaded for relief of these feelings.
I tried to go to a party that we had planned, but while there, an incident occurred that threw me into an almost outright panic attack. I ended up walking home. I prayed some more, but I could not shake the emotions. My daughter had an awards ceremony that we were suppose to be to so I decided I would try again, but while there I nearly lost it again. Finally after the ceremony I pulled aside two members of my bishopric and I asked them for a priesthood blessing. During the blessing I felt the release of those negative emotions. Peace finally came to me.
It was one of  these men who then reminded me that this could well be related to my weight loss as he had experienced these same emotions while losing weight himself. I assured him I was aware of that, and that even though I was aware of it I could not stop them from coming and for some reason I could not get rid of them through reasoning.
It was because of this mans experience along with my own that I thought I might share this so that if there are those who struggle with emotions while losing weight they might understand that in the raw emotions are chemicals and when you emotionally eat there is a good chance that those chemicals will get trapped in your fat cells. When you exercise there is a good chance that you may release those emotions. Hopefully your experience won't be nearly as bad as I felt mine was, but being aware of it may help you push through the hard things and keep on track.
Let those poisons sweat out of you. Remember Eat Less, Move More. You will become physically what you already are mentally if you just don't stop.

Reporting in Week 7

End of Week 6

Well, we are now over half way through this contest and this week has been kind of blah for me. I wrote in my earlier entry about my mental clicks, so in my report I thought I would share with you what I have done to eat less. I must give my disclaimer before I start. I am not an expert. But then again what is an expert but a has-been-little-more-than-a-drip. I have found that what works for one person may not work for another. What is healthy for one person may not be healthy for another. Each of us must learn to read our own body and understand it. Though I do believe that the basic principles of my plan are not dangerous unless taken to an extreme. So, what do I mean when I say eat less and move more? Well, first when I eat out I immediately ask for a togo container and before I take one bite I put half of it away. Second, at home we eat off of mostly the square tupperware plates or use the normal cereal bowls. I now use the smaller bowl where I can. When I use the plate I now have the discipline not to eat more than firsts and a couple of sneaks off of Matthew or Spencer's plates.(mostly for the reaction ;~) ) It is much easier now that my stomach has shrunk.
We have increased our vegetable intake, not that we are eating things we didn't use to, but our desire for more vegetables has increased. I would eat more fruit, but my family is a little slow to catch on to the fruit thing and I usually like my fruit with things that kinda negate their value as a source of positive nutrients. Oh well, I am sure that I will be inspired to eat more fruit sooner or later.
As for dessert, well I have no intention on giving that up, but instead of having a cereal bowl full of ice cream or even the smaller bowl. I settle for a snack cup. Dessert is where I feel creative. I have discovered a new favorite dessert. Here is my recipe for my cookie dough tongue teaser:

1 small cookie dough ball (peanut butter is my favorite)

about 3 to 5 Tbs. of Vanilla ice cream

place the small dough ball in the bottom of a tupperware snack cup then put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Place the ice cream on top and drizzle with caramel. 

The trick is learning that when you eat a little it costs less and when you eat it slow you let the flavors wrap around your tongue and allow the memory of the flavor linger longer. It is much more satisfying than the "bite swallow, tastes good, but its gone method." 

I have noticed an increase in my desire for hot foods as well. Spicy is good until later that is... but we wont go there. Last week I happened to look up on the internet foods that increase your metabolism, it was interesting to see how many of those foods were foods that I have been drawn to. 

End of Week 7 still falling

Exercise this week has been up and down. Tai Chi on Monday and Wednesday due to sleeping in, Biggest Loser 10 minute workouts for 30min.on Tuesday, Thursday, and abbreviated to 20min. on Friday. This was not one of my stellar weeks, although when I did sweat I did sweat big time. So we shall see how it goes. Tomorrow I am going to have to have a good workout or the scale might not budge. It seems like It is stuck on my scale at home this week. I suppose it is bound to happen a couple more times on my journey.

Becoming Physically What I already am Mentally

This biggest loser contest has really helped me to realize that I am capable of doing things that I do not like to do. Not only that but doing what I don't like to do is not half as bad as I thought it would be...once I am done doing it. Another thing that I have come to realize is that we can not change physically until we change mentally. The mental changes we make are often very slight, but they make a huge difference.
When I started this contest 6 weeks ago I was 300 lbs. That is as heavy as I have ever been. I committed myself to the competition before I was mentally ready and I was scared that I would give up before I even started. I knew that I would have to change inside before I could change outside, because I was not willing to do much in the way of exercise and diet. Food has been a way of life and I was not that motivated to change that aspect of my life.
I came from a large family and when it came to food we ate what we could when we could. We ate well, probably too well. Sometimes I think eating was more of a competition than it was a matter of survival. But somewhere mentally we flipped a switch that told us that we were starving and we might not get another meal. I think that happens to a lot of us as teenagers, we just forget to turn that switch off when we grew up.
I grew to like having that full tummy feeling. It was like I had accomplished something great by eating so much.  And when I liked something... well, it was probably going to be the last time I got to eat it so I would have to eat as much of it as I could. Just another one of those mental switches that got thrown and I forgot to turn it off once I realized it was back on the menu.
I have heard of other switches that others have and each one of them seems to me to be very logical. Fear is a huge switch. When we are afraid we often seek comfort. One way we seek comfort is orally. As a baby every time we cried we were given a binky, a bottle, a breast, or we found our thumb to pacify us. As we got older we turned to food. The problem was, we ate many things not because our body needed them so much as we were seeking comfort. It became emotional for us. We couldn't explain why we felt the way we did so we put something in our mouth and it tasted good so that took our mind off of the problem temporarily. Just like some people turn to drugs and alcohol. After a while we conditioned ourselves when we felt bad to eat something. This becomes an addiction. Another switch that has to be flipped.
I myself had another hurdle that I had to cross. I could not see myself doing exercise routines. I had nightmares of that Simmons guy in little tight shorts dancing in my head. Exercise routines were for other people not my type, Good grief I had some dignity. :o  So, another mental switch had to be flipped.
Each of us have different switches, but the principle is the same once we figure out why we allowed ourselves to get where we are, then we can reach into our own mind and flip that switch. That is if we are willing to flip that switch. Some of us have been holding on to some of these switches for a long time and we don't want to give them up. That is a decision each of us has to make on our own.
You see those switches happen on the Biggest Loser television show every week. Losing  weight for those who are morbidly obese is a physical/emotional process. I promise you will have tears of frustration, of anger, of hopelessness, and tears of joy if you push yourself past the frustration. The great thing about watching the show is that patterns are set that you can visibly see. You have good weeks and bad weeks. You have times when you want to win and times you have to decide not to lose. It is mental and emotional.

For me the switch came right before the contest. I realized that I did not need to eat as much as I was used to. I realized that I was eating for the wrong reasons. I was eating to get full, instead of eating to nourish my body. I ate a lot of stuff just because it was in front of me, it looked good, it tasted good, and I thought I had to eat it. When I mentally told myself that I didn't need to eat it, right now, it became a take it or leave it game.  My wife is a good cook. I know that if something was good, if I don't get another bite of my dinner, she will make it again and I don't have to eat it all right now. Eating slower was another cool revelation in discovery. I love dessert and by eating slow I found that I could make a little flavor go along way, and realizing that by eating just a little the ice cream will last me a lot longer. ;) I have now gotten to the point where I do not want to even come close to feeling stuffed. I will save a portion of my meal for a later snack or for another meal rather than stuff myself.

So, why do you eat what you eat? Do you look at your food and ask is this enough to satisfy me? or do you ask yourself if you need this much? Simple questions sometimes help us find out where our switches are.

The way we see ourselves is important. If we see ourselves as overweight that is where we will stay. Our body wants to stay where we think we are. If we think we are slim our body will try to match our image. We either have to change what we think of ourselves or we will remain the same. 

Child Labor Laws Good and Bad

The problem that I have with most laws is their unintended consequences. While no one wants to return to the audacious conditions that occurred prior to the child labor laws, I believe that we are hurting our younger generations in other ways by not allowing them the opportunity to work.
What if we allowed youth to work? Even if it was only part time. There are many jobs that young people could perform without putting them in danger and still giving them the opportunity to contribute to the community. Work is a vital part of teaching our youth work ethics and moral character.  Principles that are becoming more and more rare among the new workforce.  Many of our young people are entering into the workforce with no experience and an unrealistic expectation of what work is. Had they the opportunity to earn a small wage they might even appreciate the work their parents perform in raising feeding and housing them.

Reporting in Week 6

This week has been fairly good. I have learned that when I am making dinner I tend to pick a lot more than I thought I did. No, I take that back I knew I did, but I didn't think that picking counted toward the meal. So, I have discovered that Sunday's may be my one day of eating a little more than rest of the week. I have also seen a pattern emerge on Fridays. Fridays seem to have become a night I have to watch because for some reason since starting this program it seems we have something lined up involving sweets every week. I am not about to turn them down, but again. I eat less and afterwards I move a little more. One of these days I will have to write a detailed list of what I am eating on a daily basis, but for now I am more conscious of my snacks which consist of a few chips, but mostly crackers. Wheat thins are my favorite. I love the nutty flavor and the crispness. Wasa whole grain cracker breads are good too. I have been able to flip that mental switch that tells me that hunger means I am starving. Now when I feel hungry it only means I need a little snack... a couple of crackers with some cottage cheese and sour cream dip.

I truly believe that if we are not moving a lot during the day we don't need a lot of food for the day. If we want to eat more we need to move more. If we don't want to move more then we need to Eat Less.

I used to tell people that I had my food storage and I carried it with me where ever I went. Sadly it was all in my stomach. Now that I am losing weight I can't say that anymore, thus my early entry on Food Storage. :) It feels much better to have a food storage that I am not carrying around.

Moving more- I finally ordered and received my tai chi workouts for beginners starring none other than the Grass hopper himself, David Carradine. While I was taking my mind body class I rented a similar video with Grasshopper and it looked unimpressive, but when we tried it, Holy Cow!!!, it was impressively effective. I am going to try it out and see where I will fit it in to my routine. I am kind of thinking that Mondays and Tuesdays may be good, because they are days I struggle to want to do something strenuous, and even though tai chi doesn't look strenuous it is, so I will use the deception to my advantage. Monday morning I did not do because of the holiday. But I picked things back up on Tuesday on Wednesday morning my unofficial weigh in on my own scale put me under 170, but on Thursday I drank an extra bottle of water, which happened to show up in my sauna suit on Friday morning. I am not sure that I have sweated that much in a 30 minute time frame since aerobics for football and wrestling in high school. This week I did increase the intensity of my exercise ball routine in the evenings. I work it until I almost break a sweat, just enough to warm not enough to burn.

I have not been feeling super duper tonight so my normal exercise ball routine was abandoned, but tomorrow should still bring me closer to my goal weight of  269lbs.



Week 6 273 lbs. Watch it drop!



Eat Less, Move More. Becoming physically what I already am mentally.

Reporting Week 5

Eating Less- This week I did not feel much of a temptation to eat anything in particular. I did decide that saving sushi might not be safe so I did not split my meal up, but we took it to go so I could spread my lunch out over about 2 hrs. So, I didn't feel too bad about not saving half of my meal. On Sunday and Monday I did have a serving of fruits and vegetables in a couple of pieces of strawberry rhubarb pie. Snacks were crackers and cottage cheese mostly, I don't remember anything out of the ordinary. Again the trick has been watching my portions and eating slower, enjoying the flavors of the things I do eat.

I have found that I have more energy now than I have ever had. I believe two things are making this happen: One I believe that eating less allows my body to use energy in ways other than digestion. And two, I believe that by exercising energy is stored in the body allowing us to use it when it is needed.

Moving more- This week I almost lost it completely. Mentally my brain shut off almost completely. I was repulsed by the thought of doing more "exercise." I am not a big fan of exercise as I have said before. Exercise is just one means I can use to increase my movements, so for now I am settling for exercise routines. I would much rather go on a hike or play some sports, but for now I need quick results so I will stay with it. I am going to try some different routines such as Tia Chi, or possibly Yoga. Anyways back on track. I tried using the exercise ball routine for Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a very abbreviated exercise routine and Tuesday was not very effective in producing a sweat, but it did keep me moving until I could mentally get refocused. I also came to the realization that when we exercise and we start getting "the burn" it means that we are burning calories big time. So the burn is our friend when we want to lose weight. I am also realizing that stretching outside of the exercise routine is very good for keeping the body from storing toxins in the muscles. I am amazed at how well my core muscles feel. I am developing a flat stomach as I have never had before. It is an incredible feeling.

If we justify our emotional reactions then we have no hope of changing our reactions, because through justification we give ourselves the approval to do it again. That is how abuse works, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, etc. It is justified and repeated. That might also be how emotional eating becomes a habit.

I had a dream that I was sitting down and suddenly I realized I was missing something....my GUT!!!!  Eating Less and Moving More. Becoming physically what I already am mentally.

I am looking forward to tomorrows weigh ins.

276.8 lbs Watch it drop!

Reporting in Week 4

Beginning of Week 4

Eating Less- This week was pretty good except for Super Bowl Sunday. I ate pretty good, although looking back I did not eat as much as I thought I did except the pheasant fingers that I made, those were yummy and mostly protein, so I was not super worried. I also heard that spicy food increases your metabolism so I ate a few jalapeño poppers :) That to counter the few chips and the small piece of butterscotch brownie I ate. 

I did notice this week that I was eating faster than I have been, but I have been able to control my portions, so all is pretty much going according to plan. Thursday I faced the temptation of emotionally eating after receiving a call from my daughter crying and telling me she was in an accident. Thank goodness everyone was okay. I feel God had his hand in that when I saw the vehicles involved. I did increase my munchies slightly, but tried to stay away from a lot of carbohydrates. I feel like I actually have control of my auto intake reflex. Once again we ate out on Thursday night and I asked for a togo box immediately and put half my dinner away before even taking a bite. 

As a note about emotional eating: I was talking to my wife and she suggested that emotional eating was probably related to that period of development when we are seeking comfort from our parents and they put something in our mouth to calm us down. I believe we have to find within ourselves that emotional trigger that causes us to eat emotionally and decide to turn it off. This might be easier said than done, as the trigger may be caused by something very emotional. Once we do decide to turn it off we will have to replace it with something physical, spiritual, and or emotional. Some may find that exercise works for them others may find prayer, meditation, reading, or acts of service work for them. But I believe the answer lies within ourselves. 

Move More -After large losses the first 2 weeks and almost no loss on the 3rd week I was afraid of a let down in momentum. I realized it would come but I felt like I should have at least lost a pound. Oh well, I decided that I was feeling better than I have in years so I would push myself past the wall. Besides my wife thinks I am starting to look hot ;~) It is nice, most mornings she will get up and do exercises with me. We are now up to 30 minutes exercise every morning, so we are feeling the burn pretty good, by the 3rd 10 minute segment we are doing about half of the workout in their modified mode. I am debating whether to change my routine to something else at this point. Doing the same thing day after day seems a bit boring, and part of increasing my movement I think should be increasing the types of movements as well, engaging new muscles or the same muscles in different ways.  In the effort to the different types of movements I decided that I would also intentionally not park at the closest stall when I go to a store. As a note I did sit on the exercise ball while watching the Super Bowl so while I ate some goodies I was burning calories at the same time. 

Tomorrows weigh ins should be kinder to me. 

End of Week 4 279.2 Watch it fall!

Eat Less, Move More. 

Becoming physically what I already am mentally. 

Unions Giving Your Power Away

Unions interest me. I see the cover picture of unions as a very powerful concept, the voice of the people joining together to force change for the better. Yet something has always bothered me about them. It started in earnest when I worked in Las Vegas for awhile and had to work at night for our own safety because we did not belong to a union. Before that I didn't feel comfortable with the idea, but I was not really against them either. As I have looked further into my own feelings my understanding has increased and I have come to a understand why I feel the way I do...besides the threats.

The idea of a union to increase the power of your voice is kind of alluring. It kind of reminds me of Ursula from the Little Mermaids. Ursula recruited those who wanted something better than what they had, but in order to get what they wanted they had to give up their power they already owned. She knew that once she had their power, she had nothing to worry about. She would never have to give them what they really wanted. She was EEEVIIIIL!!!!

I see unions as a threat to the individual. When we trade our voice in for a collective voice we lose our own voice. In the beginning, unions look good. They have great ideals, promises of a living wage, job security, and the power of your voice to reign in bad business practices. Once they have your voice, what you think is not nearly as important as the Union's agenda. You join because together the collective voice has more money, more power to get the attention of politicians. However, as each Union gets bigger the voice does get louder, but you do not recognize that voice as your own, instead of the collective sounding like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, it sounds like Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem.

As Unions join with other Unions suddenly what you thought was a good thing starts to feel like you have no control whatsoever. It is then that you recognize Ursula for who she is. Your dues have fed this monstrosity that you have to feed in order to feed your family. Now you start hearing that tune of Doctor Proctor playing in your head. You know, "Doctor, doctor have mercy on me. Your cure is worse than my disease...."

We can not afford to compromise our individual power, by handing it over to any group. Like a candle on its own there is little light but two individual candles together work to synergize their power. One large candle may burn brighter than one small candle, but it does not have the same synergistic potential as many smaller candles working together on their own.

Welfare: Don't Feed The Bears

I was watching a documentary on Yellowstone Park the other day. They talked about how the government built up Yellowstone National Park as a tourist destination. One part of the story really caught my attention, mostly because it was an example of man messing with the natural order of God's creations. Yellowstone bears were being fed by tourists and several tourists were being mauled and some were even killed, if you can imagine that.
Well, as I see it if you warn people and they ignore the warnings then they must suffer the effects of disobedience   to their own good judgement and common sense. That can be deadly in some cases... Anyways, the government in its desire to make it safe for not so brilliant people to view the wildlife designated certain areas where they would dump food for the bears. Suddenly the number of bears began to decline. They noted that the bears when they did not have to hunt for their food lost their skills to hunt and they relied more on the food that they were given, which did not give them the nutrients that they needed to survive their hibernation.
So, it is in nature, so it is with men. Help those who need help, but if you take without offering and honing your own skills you are likely to lose the skills you have and when the "winter" comes, you will not be ready to survive. An easy meal may keep you alive temporarily, but in the long run, it will leave you malnourished and wanting for more.
It is our responsibility to help our fellow man, it is also our responsibility to take care of ourselves. There is a fine balance between giving and taking that nature allows for without destroying both the giver and the taker. A giver that gives too much or a taker that takes too much is destroyed by the contempt developed by those who take without gratitude. 

Reporting In Week 3

End of Week 2

This week I started off Sunday with a little larger dinner than I have been eating, and finished with desert. Key was only having small portions. Monday was normal except we increased our formal exercises to approximately 20 minutes. I do not officially weigh in until Saturdays, but I do weigh in morning and night. The night weigh in is sometimes discouraging, but overnight I can fluctuate almost 4 to 5 lbs. This helps motivate me to maintain my eating less. I want to make it clear that I eat less, but I have not starved myself either. I didn't need all that I was eating, so cutting back has merely been cutting excess eating. I believe that as I loose the fat my energy levels are going up. I am thinking this might be because the energy I wasted in digestion is now being able to go to other activities.
I realized that one of these weeks I would hit a wall as far as the scales go, but I am not discouraged because I am still feel myself getting trimmer. Drinking water has been critical as I can nearly feel the fat wash away as the water goes through me, which is quite frequent I might add.
On Thursday we went out to eat at Left Fork Grill which is one of my favorite places. DeeAnn and I will sometimes order a single meal and split it, especially when it is their Prime Rib, but this time I had their braised beef short ribs. Very tasty!. If we had not asked for a togo box at the beginning of the meal I might not have stopped myself from finishing it, as it was I got 2 meals out of it and felt good enough to share a piece of pie with DeeAnn.

End Week 3

I was kind of counting on this week being a minimal loss after the first couple of weeks, but I am still hopeful that I will break the 280 mark tomorrow. I am designating Fridays and Saturday mornings as my big push days to break through those barriers. So, I will eat carefully today and exercise good tomorrow, with my sauna suit before weigh ins.
One more thing I am going to be adding to my routine is a regular bed time about 10:15. This one although I feel it will be good will be harder for me mentally, because I like television at night. Oh well...So let it be written so let it be done.

A Practical Approach To Food Storage

Over the past several years we have been thinking about food storage. This was not a possibility when our obligations were going to our creditors. However, once we became debt free we realized that our next obligation was to plan for our future. Part of that planning involved food storage.

Food storage has been taught to us since we knee high to a grasshopper. My mom used to make all kinds of things out of wheat. I don't know that I was all that fond of it, but it left an impression on me nonetheless. So, when I thought of food storage I thought of wheat, rice, dry milk, sugar, and beans. Not real exciting things but when you are hungry they will fill your belly and are nutrient filled.

DeeAnn and I had differing opinions on the matter...kinda. I have found that more often than not our differing opinions are simply the way we approach the subject, in other words, it is simply a matter of perspective. Neither one of us were excited about what was suggested by the church, but I felt that if we truly believe in revelation and that the foundation of our faith is built upon that rock, then that should be our priority. However, I realized as DeeAnn did that it was not the most practical solution, because those items are not on our everyday menu. 

So, after looking at several different options, DeeAnn was inspired with a plan that satisfied, not only what we felt was our obligation to be obedient to the revelation for the church, but also would be practical for our eating habits. 

We decided that we would gather 3 months supply of the, what we call, hardcore extreme storage that was suggested by the church. This would be used for extreme emergencies, although we would incorporate certain things into diet so as to be able to digest it on a regular basis if necessary. So, by going to http://providentliving.org/ we found the tools to calculate what we needed and we have been working on gathering those items needed for our Extreme food storage.

Next we decided that to put some distance from us and the Extreme food storage, we would look into freeze dried and or dehydrated foods. Foods that have a long shelf life, but are more practical for what we use on a daily basis. We decided that Freeze dried was what we liked more and so we have chosen to go with  http://dailybread.com/ there are other companies out there as well, but we liked what we saw with these guys and the food was pretty tasty. They have a plan for 2 or 3 meals per day so you can tailor a plan to your needs and wants. Again other companies do the same, but we liked daily bread. 3 more months done and neither one would we have to worry about for 25 years. 

Lastly we decided to store up 3 months worth of every day foods our green beans, cream of mushroom soups, what ever we normally would eat week to week. 

Once these 9 months are taken care of we can then add a month to each level and have a years supply with little effort. 

This way we figured would be cheaper for us and more practical because it allows us to eat the things we like, while still having access to the things we need. We also figured that by the time we saw ourselves dipping into our secondary reserve we would be able to have enough time to work our extreme storage into our menu. 

My Thoughts on Finances

It is a well known fact that financial woes are the number one reason for divorce. First we have to recognize that financial problems have little to do with money, but we focus on money because money is easy to blame. We think we don't have enough or we think that our spouse just spends too much. More often than not our financial woes are simply a matter of ignorance, pride, and seeking comfort where you can not find it.
One of the reasons that we struggle is because we do not know how to communicate our emotions when it comes to finances and finances are all about controlling emotions. A man wants to be everything to his wife. He wants to feel confident and competent when it comes to running the affairs of his family. He wants to provide the necessities as well as the wants of his family. He does not want to know that he is falling short of his own high expectations. In the case of finances pride and ignorance seem to go hand in hand. Women on the other hand have the desire to feel secure and protected from their dragons. They place a high expectation on their man, because every woman knows that she married superman. She wants to believe that her every wish is at his command. Emotional spending might be blamed on both the man and the woman for these reasons.
Most of us grew up being taught how to tie our shoes, how to recognize the alphabet, and how to do math, but we do not learn about finances. Finances were done in the "office." Out of sight of the little people. All we know is mom and dad had money or they didn't have money. We never saw the games they played or the negotiations that they made in order to keep their household running. We have grown up for the most part without really learning the principles that govern money...especially budgeting.
Budgeting is where reality hits. As I said men do not want to know that they are failing and women do not want to feel unsecure. When we budget we have to face the facts. We have to step out of the fairy tale where money grows on trees and as long as we have checks we must still have money.
This is where a man and woman have the opportunity to grow closer together than any other way. When a husband and wife sit down together the woman encouraging her man, showing complete faith in him, beautiful things can happen. When a man sits down with his wife and they can create a workable plan, he will experience a hope like no other.

Once you can resolve to dealing with the real emotional issues involved with finances then you are ready to find the tools you need to make it as easy as possible. There are many ideas and many methods that have worked for others, but when it comes to comprehensive budgeting and planning tools I don't know of anyone with a better plan than Dave Ramsey. I highly recommend finding him on your radio or at least visiting his website and buying a couple of books. The principles he teaches are those we have been taught in the gospel all our lives, but we did not understand how to do it.  http://www.daveramsey.com/
My own experience with his program has been nothing less than miraculous. We went from going $200 dollars in debt every month to saving $1000 and paying off another $700 in 3 months. We went gang busters at first then we slowed down, but we were still able to pay off  $13,000, making less than $40,000 per year, and we did it in 2 1/2 years. We also remodeled my daughters room replaced a transmission and bought a used car in that same time period.

There is nothing more frustrating than working hard only to find out your debt load has increased. What is even more frustrating is watching someone do the same stupid things we were doing, and knowing that they will have to find out for themselves that it doesn't have to be that hard.

Reporting In Week 2

End of Week 1

This week has been a stepped up effort in my experiment on Eat Less and Move More. I have not done anything super strenuous, but have settled in mentally to my new eating habits and have continued to increase my movements in different ways.

This week I have increased my movement in a couple of ways. First, I did the full week of 10 minute workouts with my buddies from the Biggest Losers dvd. They have been most helpful. At first I felt very uncoordinated and I believe that is about as far as I have gotten in the past. These 10 minute work outs have given me hope because I didn't have to endure the humiliation of a 30 minute or one hour work out of never finding my coordination. Another mental hurdle climbed and conquered.
Second, I decided to use my exercise ball in the evenings while watching Television. I do not do any real organized exercise routine, but I bounce and roll on the ball I use it to stretch and to work on my abs, whatever comes to mind as I am just trying to keep moving. I figure tonight I might increase my moving some in anticipation of weigh ins tomorrow morning.
I am unsure of my losses this week but I am sure that I will be close to breaking that 180 lb mark. I am noticing how much easier it is to breath and I have more energy than I have in years.

As far as eating less, this week I have concentrated not so much on what I eat, although I have noticed that I am more inclined to eat healthier when I slow my eating down. So far, I have started my breakfasts off with eggs and toast and been full with 2 eggs and a piece of toast. Mentally, I have been trying to recognize when I am filled without stretching my stomach. My goal is to shrink my stomach so that less will be needed to fill it up. I am anticipating that there will be days in the future where I may go to all you can eat buffet. My challenge instead of seeing how much I can eat, but how many different things I can eat. Smaller portions will be the trick and not doing it very often which wont be hard because we don't go to them very often anyways.
My snacks have consisted of cottage cheese, crackers, cheese, and my favorite hint of lime Tostitos. The trick has been to slow down my snacks. What normally would take me 5 minutes to scarf down, now is done in half an hour to 45 minutes. Instead taking handfuls out of the bag I take one at a time and I savor them. I have noticed that the sharp cheddar is easier to savor than cottage cheese so I need less of it to satisfy my craving for flavor. Although I did mix cottage cheese and sour cream with ranch and that was good as well. Another very important thing has been my water intake. I have a 59fl oz container that I fill up every morning when I get to work and I drink 2 to 3 of them throughout the day, that is not to mention what I drink at home. It is amazing how I can feel the fat just washing away as water and gravity takes its course through the body.

I am no expert, but I do believe that each of us has the answer within us as to what our body needs. We often will turn to others to find the answer we seek because our own emotional fears of dealing with who we have become. Be assured that it is not important how we see what we have become so much as it is that we see ourselves for who we really are. God did not send us here to wallow in our misery. God sent us that we might have joy. Be true to yourself there are harder things in life than losing weight, losing weight will simply be the unveiling of what God and probably everyone else around you has seen all along.

End of Week 2

Week#2   282.8 lbs

My Thoughts On Weight Loss, Dieting, and Exercise

Before

Recently I joined a Biggest Loser weight loss competition. I have always maintained an attitude that I do not like diets, nor do I like exercise. To me those words are temporary words, words that lead to epic failure. As I  prepared for this contest I knew that I would have to make some fundamental changes in my thought process.
First I would have to change the way I thought of food. And second I would have to change the way I thought of exercise.
As for food, I used to eat whatever I could and I ate until I was full. I like food and I thought the natural thing to do with food you liked was eat more of it. Whenever the pangs of hunger hit it meant that I needed food and I needed it now. It really wasn't that I ate huge, monster amounts of food. It just was that I ate more than I needed to. I did not live an active lifestyle and I ate like I did.
As I look back I have had several things that have influenced my mental change. One most recently was a radio show that I just caught maybe about five minutes of. A gentleman named Gabriel claimed that he had weighed over 400 lbs and lost all of his excess weight without dieting. He claimed that we have emotional switches that control our weight gain and weight loss. That some emotional stressor causes a part of our brain to think we are going through a famine and it causes our body to store fat. He claimed that if we could get rid of that stressor that our body would naturally lose the weight. I am not sure why, but something rang true and I know that most of the battle is in your mind. Something clicked inside of me and I realized that I could eat less and still enjoy eating.
I promised that I would not go on a diet, but I would eat less of what I do eat and I would introduce some new foods into my menu. After I started this process the next step came when I started fixing breakfast one morning and I found myself asking if I had fixed too much. At that point I realized that mentally I had changed the way I thought about food. If I like what I am eating I now eat it slower and keep it in my mouth longer. It is not a race to eat as much as I can, but a challenge to keep the flavor lasting longer. Lately I have been enjoying my food more and when I am done I don't feel that stuffed feeling that I am sure caused my body more stress.
I have always felt that the stress of worrying about our weight was more dangerous than the weight itself. Which I still believe, but I also realize that the weight causes its own stress on our body and carries with it its own dangers. So, my philosophy has been if your weight bothers you get rid of it, but don't worry about it, just do it.
As for exercise, again another mental hurdle had to be overcome. That one came about a couple of years ago while taking a class one the mind body connection. We were given an assignment to increase our movement. We did not call it exercise because we did not want to get in a routine. Instead we were to try different types of exercises, from aerobics, Thai-chi, dancing, walking, or whatever increased our movement. This eased my mind on exercise which again I knew I could not maintain a routine for the rest of my life. I like variety and I know that a routine would not feel natural to me. Instead I just had to move more. Now exercise is just a tool to help me move more.
These hurdles have helped me start the process of becoming physically what I already am mentally. My Moto has become Eat Less and Move More and Become Physically what you already are Mentally.

Ouch!!! Watch it fall.

Week #1 I dropped 12 lbs.