Overcoming The Diet Failures (My observations, experiments, failures and successes)

The biggest reasons for failure in a diet is the lack of trying, the lack commitment, the lack of will power. This is an extremely difficult process and the difficulty is compounded when you are attempting this journey alone. You both then have someone to encourage you and to be there when you are at your weakest.

Now I am not claiming any scientific break through or even highly researched data. I know what I know through using logic and things that I have learned along the way.

I am not where I should be ideally. I have about 18 lbs to go before I get to the upper limits of the weight that I am striving for. I know what my target weight is but I am not focusing on that. What I am focusing on is taking it piece by piece.

The first ten pounds came off really easy the first time I tried my dieting. I simply eliminated a whole ton of sugary foods from my diet. Specifically sodas. I severely limited my consumption of candy and deserts. Anyone that knows me understands that I am a big Oreo addict. I could go though tray of Oreo's in 1 to 2 days. I simply cut that habit out cold turkey.

Do I get sugar withdrawals? Yes! I do what ever it takes to overcome the urges. Aside from the Oreo's I could pack away a minimum of two cans of sodas a day. That too, I quit cold turkey.

I manage my portion control extensively. Until I started this journey...lifestyle, I did not even consider how little food my body needed to be healthy. For the longest time I would watch calories. I figured out how many calories that I was eating and how many calories I should be eating. I took my current calories and subtracted 100 calories form that and did this calculation everyday. It was time consuming but well worth it. Now I know without calculations what I should be doing and I just do it. As you can see from the picture above, I eat what I want. The biggest thing is portion control and the weight will come off.

Now diet alone will not get me to where I want to go. I figured this out the last time I dieted. At first I just did the diet to figure out just how far I could go on diet alone. The first 18 lbs came off and then I just hovered at that weight until I ended up breaking my foot and my diet went out the window.

Now that I am back I am dieting and getting plenty of exercise. I am continuing my karate (with two of my children) which will help. But even before my accident the tow days of karate a week was not enough. Now I have incorporated push-ups and small amounts of running into my routine. I have also decided to practice my strength training from karate everyday. I am burning more calories and feeling great doing it.

Most of this journey I am taking alone, that's why I have taken to blogging this journey and other things that I feel are important. I am making my success public so that I feel that I cannot just quit or let up. In fact I gain strength and encouragement from my readers. Weather any comments are left I know that there are people reading this and hopefully are encouraged by this journey.

Have the most wonderful day and enjoy the life that you have been given.

Never Give Up!

I have come to the realization that loosing the weight like I had in the past is going to be a little more difficult. I have nearly two weeks down and am seeing very little progress, Though I am seeing progress. I just feel that there was more weight loss the first time around. This will not discourage me though. I was prepared for this situation. I have known that it is harder to loose the weight the more times that you try.

The biggest sources of weight gain for me are portions that are to large and way to many sodas. I have begun to watch the portions quit extensively. I am hoping that this will start to pay of sooner than later. I think that having a desk job is not helping burn off the calories that I am consuming even though I have cut back. What I will have to do now is bring in more exercise, though this will be somewhat more difficult.

Aside from working 50 hours a week I have taken up more activities outside of the workplace. One of my ongoing activities is that I am a full time student though Western Governors University. I am going to obtain my bachelors degree in business management. I currently have 3 terms left.

I have also recently taken up volunteering at my kids high school with the US Naval Sea Cadet Program. This is a new program at this school so we are building it to hopefully stand on its own in the near future. For now we are training under a neighboring unit. I am one of the officers/instructors in the unit. This new venture appears to be taking up more time than I first expected, but yet I did know that the adventure would be difficult and yet fun. It is definitely for a good cause...the kids.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to another test in karate. My son and I have been invited to the main dojo in Georgia to test for our next belt. We are both excited and are looking forward to testing.

With all of this said there still appears to be a lack of proper exercise in my life. Karate is good but that is only two days a week...normally. What I have to do is figure out how to squeeze in some time to do exercising around this tough schedule.

What I have started to do is while in my office I will do push-ups. I have been doing sets of 10 several times a day. This helps get the blood flowing and has increase the number of push-ups that I can do. Another thing that I have started to do is walking stairs. I have tried to limit how much I use the elevator. I have taken a preference to the stairs. I have even started making an effort to walking over to the the tallest building on campus and walking the stairs. There I have been able to walk up the stairs for 10 stories.

This all might sound impressive but I am also not doing this everyday. Some days I just get so busy that I forget or do not have time to do anything extra. My goal now is to force myself to take that time that I need for my well-being. Other things that I would like to work into my schedule are running, sit-ups and jump roping. I also am looking forward to biking again.

These are some goal and so let the journey begin. I hope that the next time I post a new entry I can have set some of these goals into practice. Oh, one last comment. I mentioned that I was drinking to much soda. Well I would like to announce that since I posted last (I believe on the 15th of February) I have completely gotten rid of all sodas from my diet. I did it once before then broke my foot. Now I am back!

Starting from Ground Zero...Again!

I was doing a great job last year of loosing weight and getting things going in the right direction. Then, I broke my foot. That was a major setback. The pounds came back on as I sat around the house not exercising and going crazy with the eating.

 For a couple of months I was eating what ever I could convince someone to bring me and usually it was not very healthy food. I knew the pounds were going back on but I really did not care. I was bore and food seemed to be the thing I could do. That combined with the lack of exercise quickly chipped away at my motivation.

But I now want to announce that I am back. I believe that I am back stronger then before. I may have back tracked on the weight but that is over. Just in the past week I have noticed that I have lost a few pounds.

I managed to have dumped my soda problem ... again. I have been without a soda (or caffeine of any kind) for the last week and a half. It feels good and I know that I will be loosing some weight just because of the lost calorie and sugar that is in the soda.The last time I quit I managed to loose about 10 pounds.

What I have added to the mix is a nightly "tea". I have made my own blend of spices and  have been drinking that nightly. My goal was to lessen or even eliminate my asthma. My exercise induced asthma kept me from running. I tried once in a while to run but life was just easier without it. I would be wheezing so hard just after a few feet that I feel the people in the next neighborhood over could hear me coming.

I believe that this tea is helping. I have been drinking it for the last couple of months and I seem to be not as worn out. In fact I was able to go out and run a week ago and managed to get myself about a half mile and a trial run. The best part was that I was not that out of breath when I finished.

The tea I came up with consists of the following ingredients.

     1/2 teaspoon - Cinnamon
     1/2 teaspoon - Turmeric
     1/2 teaspoon - Ginger
     Honey

I put the dry ingredients in the bottom of the cup. I then cover the dry ingredients with honey to fit my taste. I am considering other ingredients but still am working on the right blend. I then boil water and fill the cup.

This is what seems to be working for me. I feel that I have more energy and am ready to tackle the decade or so battle with asthma. As of today I have just under 2 weeks to prepare for a karate test. I will have to be able to run in a small room with several other individuals in it for about 20 minutes, in full karate uniform (gi) and with the heat turned up to what seems to be about 90 degrees. The whole test will take 3-4 hours. I cannot wait.

I am ready to take on the challenges and look forward to loosing weight and becoming a better me. Stick around and follow my journey. Better yet start your own journey. Let me know how and what you are doing to better yourself.