Thursday, July 9, 2009

Day 297 Weigh Day Numbers and The Longest Four Minutes

Day 297

Weigh Day Numbers and The Longest Four Minutes

I always go back and read what I posted the night before. Often times I wish I would have said a particular thing a better way—or offered a better example. Today I read last night's post and I really got in to it good. I was on a first class ramble! And then I realized a large portion of that post could have been summed up in one simple sentence: If it's simply a means to lose weight, and not something you plan to do for the rest of your life, then it's temporary, and so is any success you experience while doing it. OK, maybe not a simple sentence, but you understand what I'm saying right? I plan on eating normal food in normal portions—an honest healthy combination of fats, proteins, and carbs-complex and simple carbs too. I plan on maintaining an active lifestyle, I plan on living. It's hard to argue with that approach, but people will and have. I'm not going to mention their name (not a blogger I recognized), but in my e-mail in-box today I found a very rare response. I was told that just because my approach works for me it doesn't mean it will work for everybody the same. The author of this e-mail went so far as to call me “self-righteous.” I wondered if they had the wrong person! You talkin' to me? Hold on, let me put on those cool sunglasses. You talkin' to me? Are you seriously talking to a man that weighed over 500 pounds for nearly two decades, been deathly obese his entire life, tried and failed at every other approach to losing weight, and now has broken it down into the most simple terms of “eat less-exercise more-and hold tight and defend your journey with everything you got?” Really? Self righteous? Wow. I prefer “correct.” I've finally discovered the best most natural correct way to lose weight. And if that somehow threatens your perception of how to lose weight, you just haven't reached this point yet. I'm not talking about the point of success where I proudly stand, I'm talking about the point where you give up all the nonsense, where you drop the excuses and rationalizations, where you get completely honest with yourself about your behaviors and you stop trying to find the next best thing in the world of weight loss plans and products, it's a place where you discover that the best solution doesn't cost anything at all and it doesn't require eating “just this” and “not that.” Geez. I promised myself I wouldn't let that crazy e-mail bother me. I didn't reply personally at all and I don't plan on it. But—if the author of that “self-righteous” nonsense is reading this post, here's my advice: Go back and educate yourself by reading my blog from day one. Then come back and tell me what you think. I'll guarantee your attitude will be different. I've only had three e-mails of this type before and only a couple of nasty comments in all of the last 297 days---so, I guess that's pretty good. I'm betting that this person read a passionate comment I left on someones blog, clicked my name, found the e-mail on my profile---and started typing. It was refreshing to find an actual name at the bottom instead of an anonymous type thing. I'm much better now. I just laughed for no good reason, I'm sorry. I guess I laughed because I planned this paragraph to be just a few short sentences, and the next thing you know...oh well.

Today was weigh day! First of all let me say that I'm extremely happy with my results today. BUT—I honestly thought I would find a bigger loss based on fitting into those 44's...going down a couple of notches in the belt I now have to wear on the 46's, and I'm feeling and seeing differences that somehow keep getting better. I seriously thought I'd find an eight pound two week loss, I really did. I didn't, and that's completely cool. But I did find a 6 pound loss again!!! Last time I weighed 322, today I weighed in at 316! Three hundred and sixteen pounds! I just had to write it out. That wonderful 3 pound per week average is fantastic and something I can be extremely proud about. It seems to be the groove I've created over the past several weigh days. Five, six, six, seven, six...or something like that. I had a ten back there somewhere. Anyway...Here's the wonderful total: 189 pounds in 297 days. I'm thrilled about that! And I updated my BMI number today and finally I'm below 40. My BMI is now 39.5, it was a 63.1! I don't really understand all that fancy science stuff, but it's cool to see that lower number! And I'm getting very close to crossing the 200 pound milestone and then crossing down into the 200's. That sounds incredible.

I never realized how long four minutes could feel until tonight. Our workout at the YMCA pushed my limits. I jogged at 5.7 mph for a solid four minutes without stopping or slowing down. The first minute and a half was fairly easy, the last two and a half was pure will. I refused to quit. I focused on my music, I looked straight ahead with my head held high and my arms pumping along side, and I did it. Four minutes of jogging. I almost stopped at three minutes—but I decided I could do four, I knew I could. It wasn't easy. I'm use to just walking 4.0 mph, and doing enough of it to get a great workout. This was on another level. After being in radio for over twenty years, I can tell you exactly how long three and a half minutes feels like (the average length of a hit record)...but four minutes, oh my...I had no idea. I'll be at five minutes in not long. I know I will.

Tonight I made something unusual. You see, our fridge is out of commission until Friday, the new compressor is on order. So we have to eat out or go to the store and buy just enough for one meal and prepare it immediately. I decided to make a personal homemade pizza using a tortilla for the crust, low-fat-part skim mozzarella, a jar of pizza sauce, and black forest ham slices. It was absolutely wonderful! And it was a super low 230 calories! Wow---a very tasty low cal treat...talk about a good calorie value.

I'm looking forward to where this road is leading and it is really exciting. I see the glow of lights on the horizon. It's the city of living! Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts everyday. I sincerely appreciate your support. Good night and...

Good Choices,
Sean

22 comments:

  1. FANTASTIC!!!

    Congrats on your great loss! You are just amazing! You are so close to to amazing milestones...wow.

    Great going, Sean!

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  2. Another 6lb off is great news!

    And excellent news on the 4 minute run - woo-hoo!

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  3. That is an awesome loss! I am so happy for you. I still find it so hard to believe that you weigh 316 lbs--you don't look it at all. It home tonight when you were talking about your BMI. Yours is lower than mine. Mine is like 43 and I need it to be 35. UGH! I am so sorry about the email today. I hope it wasn't from someone reading your comment on the blog I asked you to read. But you know, I totally agree with you.

    I get tired of the excuses within myself, much other people's excuses. The reality is if we don't change our eating attitudes then nothing changes. Losing 200 lbs on Atkins, but never learning how to eat for life is NO HELP at all. It's really not a difficult concept.

    Glad to hear it does not effect your attitude! Keep it going! I am going to try some tortilla pizzas tomorrow. Yummy!

    Blessings--Bonnie

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  4. Haha, that email was a joke! I love your posts, you dont come off as being "self-righteous" at all. "Inspirational" is more like it!

    Anyways, congrats on your loss!

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  5. Wow! I'm impressed with your four minutes! I'm still trying to get my walking speed up to a consistent 4 mph. I can do it for a few minutes, but not for a whole mile, let alone for an hour! But I'll get there!

    Congrats on the awesome loss!

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  6. Congratulations on your 6lb. loss, and on your 4 minute run. I love your attitude about weight loss and look forward to reading your blog each morning. Your attitude about food yesterday helped me walk away from a tempting situation. I felt better because I did not give in.

    congratulations to you, and thanks for your awesome blog!

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  7. 6 lb. loss + 4 min. run = 10 which is perfect. Congrats!

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  8. Way to go on the weight loss and the run!

    As for the email, well, I will go back to my son's favorite quote..."Whatever!"

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  9. Sean - I could not agree with you more regarding the lifestyle / attitude change! You can't just adopt a new way of doing things until you arrive at your goal and then go back to the old ways. The old ways get you the old results.

    I don't find you at all self-righteous. Sometimes I'm a bit jealous of you (lol) but mostly I see you as a very caring person who is sharing his journey both to help himself and to help others. The word that comes to mind is "generous"--you are a generous soul!

    I'd just like to talk about pounds vs. inches. I was at a conference in April where a doctor explained that it's actually just as essential to lose inches as it is to lose pounds. As we know, what's dangerous is the fat that envelops our internal organs and that's what we're working to reduce. We also know that muscle weighs more than fat, so you can be reducing fat (and therefore inches) without necessarily losing a lot of weight. I actually experienced the opposite of this when I was hyperthyroid. I started losing weight though I hadn't changed in the least my eating habits. In fact, I realized that I could eat whatever I wanted and still lose weight. Unfortunately, I had other symptoms that were less pleasing (heart palpitations, diarrhea, feeling overheated) and when I went to the doctor, he tested me and confirmed that my weight loss was actually MUSCLE loss and not fat. As we re-established my thyroid function, I gained all that muscle and weight back!

    Bottom line: if you're losing lots of inches, you are definitely doing the right things.

    A note on the BMI: it's bull. See this article at the NPR website (many thanks to The Rotund):
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp

    For some reason, my cut and past function is not working, so I can't provide a quick and dirty quote, but it's definitely worth reading.

    Sorry I've gone on for so long.

    Love your blog! See you tomorrow.

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  10. Rock-solid weigh-in, Sean. You've been spoiled with some monster numbers in the past. As you slim down, you've going to have to learn the joy of the 1 or 2 lb. per week loss. But don't worry, I think you've got a few more big losing months ahead of you. Man, it's gonna be a party when you slip into the 200's.

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  11. Hey don't worry about a couple of nasty comments we all get them every now and then!
    Congrats on another great week :)
    You are soo close to the 200's, i may just have to buy myself a cupcake (yep me having simple carb) to celebrate for you!!!!!
    And you've made a huge difference in how i see my weight loss. Eat less, do more!! And yep it works.

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  12. Congrats on the loss! Regarding the email, there are so many lonely, sad and miserable people out there that are sitting at home surfing the internet trying to find "the magic way" to quickly lose weight. They stumble across wonderful people like you and they are jealous. Just know that you are doing the right things the RIGHT way & that is all that matters. You are also helping hundreds of people along the way while letting us in on your daily life. At least it wasn't anonymous. I stopped allowing anonymous comments when I first started writing my blog. Some people don't realize that their harsh words and cruel attitudes effect nice people like us! :) Have a great day & an even better weekend.

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  13. I look forward to reading your blog everyday. In fact, you're the one I can depend upon to post daily. I weigh tomorrow--so far I've lost 15 pounds. Keep up the good work, I'm excited for you!

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  14. Sean, congrats on the loss! AND the four-minute run! You can already run longer than I can, haha. I'm proud of you.

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  15. Don't let that person's email bother you.

    Congrats on doing 4 mins of jogging! I wish there were a good place around here I could work out on the treadmill. Hey...I can get in to my sister-in-law's gym for just $5 if I am her guest. I'm going to send her an email right now and see if we can set that up!

    You are inspiring as always!

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  16. Well Done Sean, great loss and the running, I wish I could run.

    You self-righteous? Pardon? That email must have gone to the wrong person?

    Keep on inspiring..

    Sheilagh

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  17. Thanks for helping me get on track so I didn't have to meet you in the 300s. . . maybe this way I can stay a bit ahead of you!

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  18. HEY SEAN!! I'm still breathing..just been away for a minute!

    weeeell weeeeell weeeell..look who's still losing weeeeeeeight!! LOSER!!! :D well, that's a GREAT THING for us who're TRYING!!

    I've had tortilla pizza before. it rocks! I use fresh, chopped plum/Roma tomatoes, moz. cheese, and torn fresh basil. TALK ABOUT MMMM MM MMM!! I've done the same on a pita flatbread for a bit of a heavier bite. I started using flour tortillas because I worked at Planet Hollywood when it was still here in Chicago and they had an appetizer called Pizza Bread which was basically where I got my recipe from.

    cooking healthy is such fun isn't it? more of a challenge than just frying up food in grease or slathering it in ....whatever!!

    Be Blessed!

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  19. Amen to paragraph 1! I agree with you completely!

    And... congrats on another awesome loss! You are going to be under 300 pounds before you know it! :)

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  20. WOW! Great loss! You are going full steam!
    I've always said. DIET is a temporary fix, healthy lifestyle is a lifetime. (and since it makes you healthier, a longer lifetime hopefully!)

    Great work on the loss and BMI changes! Keep it going strong!

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  21. huh? the so-called self righteous post was the one i most identified with! it made so much sense! regardless....great job thus far and those 200s are just around the corner!

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  22. I have to admit, though, it's pretty impressive that your critic actually signed their name.

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