In Short, In truth, Here I am

I've received a bunch, I mean a BUNCH,of inquiries as to ny whereabouts. I chose to reply to one of them, using that reply to organize my thoughts, and then after sending that email share them with all here via this post....

Hi Jody, thanks for checking up on me; I hope all has been well with you!

In short, everything is Ok here. Family is happy, healthy, everything is well with our home, work and school lives.

In truth, after we returned from vacation in early July I struggled to get my mojo back for forgoing ahead with my mission to slim down to 199. For a couple of weeks I kept doing the things I had been, but oddly the exercise was harder to get through, the meal discipline was harder to manage, the balancing of me-first in with my non-me priorities was harder to execute.

Even as I sit here and type now, I do not know why what was so easy, so enjoyable a year ago; I do not know why it suddenly got so hard. The best I can rationalize is that I was beginning to mentally burn out to some degree. Seeing that I knowingly decided to step back and take a break from what was proving difficult, I have no doubt that was it.

So here I am today, the weekend drawing to a close, August days away from closing as well. I've stayed away from the scale as its been a source of difficulty; difficulty in not seeing number continue downward. Today, I would guess it is 10 pounds greater than where is was a couple of months ago. Exercise has been very sporadic, my eating has been inconsistent from day to day.

Over the past couple days I've caught myself thinking more as I did a year ago. We (my wife & I) have put conscious effort into reversing the difficulty and regaining momentum. Over the next week we look to work on our consistency a day at a time. This morning we got off our butts and got them moving again in a big way with a 6.9 mile walk along a nearby forest preserve trail.

What is most frustrating is even through this difficult period, we have not forgotten how important it is to get healthy, to stay healthy. The reasons I started this mission some sixteen months ago have not changed. While the challenges and results of what we do vary from day to day, month to month; the reasons for living healthy lives are constant.

Understanding this, we must now harness the importance of these reasons in order to reclaim commitment and resume consistency.

I'll check in on your blog and those of others who I've missed this week!

p.s.. the picture at the top there is of my wife & daughter exchanging a tearful goodbye as we dropped her off at college nearly three weeks ago.


Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 334-335: We Deserve a PBR

source

For most of life PBR meant Pabst Blue Ribbon, good stuff if flavor is not key to your beer drinking experience. Oh, and NO, I did NOT pose for that photo!

Today & in recent years PBR is a popular acronym in the business world including I.T. (Information Technology) the industry I work in.

P-Plan, reduce time/cost associated with determining how to build what we've been tasked to build; e.g. physical vs virtual platforms, online vs nearline data storage, blah blah more i.t. speak

B-Build, increase throughput/capacity to deliver more builds; e.g. standard vs custom, pull vs push processes/methodologies, blah blah more flavor of the day speak

R-Run, reduce time/cost associated with keeping what we've built running; e.g. preventative vs predictive maintenance, system redundancies & availability, blah blah more captain obvious speak

This week I spent 3 hours at work immersed in PBR. During this time my mind wandered & began to ponder how PBR correlates to my health mission. Here is what I came up with...

P-Plan, Reduce my trigger-finger mindset to fire off excuses and increase my knowledge; learn best practices to lose weight & keep it off. In other words you can only do what you plan to do, don't leave success to chance or accident!

B-Build, Create a schedule & menu consisting of a variety of exercise & foods to build a healthier me. In other words create a healthy lifestyle to live!

R-Run, Consistently, one day at a time, Do what I know I am supposed to do; don't just want it, don't just plan it, DO IT! In other words maintain the plan which I have created changing the approach as needed to prevent slipping back into the days of excuses and complacency.

Hey, you deserve a PBR, now go get it!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 289 - 57% Progress

Good morning, well almost afternoon.

It is weigh in day for me, first in three weeks. The number three is key it seems as over the past three weeks I have lost three pounds. Good, not great but certainly as I tell many others; any loss is worth celebrating.

Over the past three weeks I have picked up my exercise effort, this past week especially. I can feel it, I feel it in energy levels, in strength, in stamina. And I am enjoying the feeling.

Over the past three weeks I have had great days of eating, and good days, and a few so-so days. Calorically the great days I am around 1800 calories in, good around 2000, so-so around 2400+... So it is very easy for me to see why I lost just three pounds. Eating consistency, plain and simple.

I am eating in a manner that is allowing me to lose weight slow and steady. Slow and steady has been my approach from day one and will remain so through to the end. Now that said, it is a bit slower than I'd like; about 1/2 pound a week slower than desired.

The adjustment needed to get that extra 1/2 pound a week off is not in exercise, nope just keep doing what I have been doing the past couple of weeks. Food, being more vigilant in my food intake and keeping the days intake consistently under 2000 calories will see it happen.

That's it, keeping it simple here in my review of my own performance on this mission... Doing good, having fun, and I understand I am capable of more and how to produce it.

In a sentence, how would you review your own performance?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 197 - 52% Progress

Hope everyone's weekend has gone as desired so far. Today I have a pair of shout outs to share...

Big Girl Bombshell had her one-year blog anniversary this past week. Making it a year on the blogs is no small feat as I see it. Think of all the bloggers we have seen come and disappear back into a vat of ice cream inside of a month or two. Not Jules, she has had a great year. As I commented to her, If a person can replace embarassment with pride in a year; that is a GREAT year.

Ann over at Ann is Livin' Large also had an 'versary this week, her 100 day'versary. She didn't rest a moment putting together a winner of a 100 day post. Here she jotted 100 ways she has benefitted from eating healthier. Number 10 & 69 are my favorites, check them out.

This week's weigh in concludes a week of inconsistency. I struggled to eat balanced and portioned meals from dawn to dusk and say to day. There weren't any all out binges or collapses, just not the degree of consistency I now expect of myself. Same can be said for exercise. I did get it in this week, but just the minimum amount I look for. None of my workouts, except for one, left me with that accomplished feeling. I sense my mind is in a difficult-to-please mood at the moment, not sure why, so I may be cutting myself short a bit.  

As of this morning I have knocked out 52% pounds.

In total 63.5 pounds have been knocked out over twenty-eight weeks, 1.5 of that this week.

Today I weighed in at 256.5 pounds.

Oh Yeah, Have a Great Sunday.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 196 - OctGTD to NovGTD

Look at those geese. They are totally fearless, nothing disturbed them. Not even my presence. Do you think they somehow know I hunt deer and not birds? Yet, that is.

Big day today, party day for the six in the family (three that live under our roof) whom have birthdays in October. We'll have about twenty people in all grazing and drinking this afternoon. Good times, and, an afternoon of temptations.

October is all but done and that means the October Go The Distance challenge is winding down. For myself this challenge was to Walk/Jog 25 miles in October. I accomplished that with a weekend to spare. However, I feel I should've hit that goal at least a week ago. Having shared that thought with Robby (Fit Girl Vs World) she had a great counter thought, "I think it's an eye opener for a lot of people to see how much it takes to be consistent, to find the motivation, to do the work. I mean, try not to think of it as a finish line, but a launching point for other challenges."

She has an excellent attitude, even more excellent perspective. Fit Girl Vs World organized this challenge and her post HERE yesterday ask us participants to consider a few things as we wrap up. In appreciation for her fine challenge I've decided to dedicate those considerations to this post. Here are my thoughts...
How do you think you did over the course of the month?

• How do you think you did over the course of the month?
In a word; inconsistent. I accomplished roughly 1/2 my goal in the 1st week. From there I struggled to make the time to do the other 1/2 by month end.

• Did you overestimate or underestimate your capabilities? Why is this? Is this representative of a larger trend in your life?
Under; even though I got my mileage in by month end I know I had more miles in me. Why? I simply poorly planned for exercise time. Challenges, & anything goal worth attaining, deserve better planning rigor.

• Did you learn anything about yourself while doing this?
I learned, or validated, that I am capable of much more when I CHOOSE to go for it. I come away here believing that I need to either come up with a valid reason to not go for it, or, GO FOR IT.

• Can you apply what you've learned in #OctGTD somewhere else in your life?
Sure, we all have other aspects of our lives which need marked improvement. One such area for me is career planning. I've attained allot in my career, but, so much more is attainable and can be achieved soon if I put more rigor to going for it.

• Did you make any new friends through #OctGTD -- were you able to support each other?
Oh yes, especially through twitter & using the #OctGTD hashtag. I would not have met as many new fitness blog/tweeps had it not been for this.

• What was the hardest part of the challenge? (physical? mental/psychological?)
Hhmmm... I am going to say mental. It was purely my own mental 'greased-albatross-wrangling' which saw me barely achieve my goal versus exceed it. Physically, to walk/jog 25 miles for the month was not too difficult. Although when I set the goal I did think it would be more difficult as I was just starting to add jogging to my cardio mix.

• What do you think you did really well this month? (doesn't have to be about #OctGTD)
Follwoing through to see the goal was achieved. The old me would have seen my inconsistency and given up or cared less if I got to mile 25 by the deadline or a week late. My new 'determined commitment' saw to it that I succeed just as it has fueled my overall transformation for nearly 200 days.

• What do you think you could improve on? (again, doesn't have to be about #OctGTD)
Other than the previously stated plan to exercise better, I'll go with eating consistency. I've had some struggles this month eating very good day in and day out. More fair or even poor eating days in October than the previous five months.

• No matter the numbers you already entered, are you going to finish strong, or taper off?
I took up this challenge for added inspiration, a reminder if you will, to do the work needed to get healthy. Just because I have hit my #OctGTD challenge goal does not mean I have achieved good health. The need to keep going strong remains and actually never will end in my 'new' belief.

• Did you go the distance? And no, I don't mean did you hit 100% of your goal... did you put yourself out there and really try for it? Is 80% still something you can be proud of?
This answer is entwined in all of my above answers. In short; I left gas in the tank. But I am proud of myself, very proud. I shall not allow a moments negativity in my reflection here.

I'm ready for #NovGTD; are you?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!