Day 487 Early Riser and The Only Day Is Today

Day 487

Early Riser and The Only Day Is Today

The alarm sounded at 3am. This isn't natural I thought. My natural inclination is to be going to bed at this time! Although I highly discourage it's use, I did employ the snooze alarm twice for an additional eighteen minutes. This is so dangerous really. Something about the extra nine minutes of a snooze can put us in a deeper sleep than before. Every time I oversleep, it's because of this deeper sleep-snooze phenomena. I took my chances this morning and somehow made it up for a very early Thursday start.

I immediately put on the coffee and jumped in the shower, got dressed and started thinking about breakfast. I prepared a four egg white omelet with mushrooms, green pepper, and half the cheese I normally use. I normally use an ounce of mozzarella---I'm slowly trying to ween myself from this cheese dependency issue. It's not really a problem, but I've noticed that I still enjoy an omelet with less just as much as I do with more, so why not save the calories? Like ridding my green beans of their melty companion, it's these little changes that I'm doing to chip away at older food habits. If I don't try to change some of these habits slowly and naturally---then I'm not evolving like I really want. It's not self-imposed deprivation, it's trying to fine tune some habits. These habits are not “make or break,” just little improvements in me that make me proud. I'm sure the fact that I've stopped putting cheese on my green beans is spreading through my close friends and family like a tale not to be believed. But he always puts cheese on his green beans! Are you serious? I'll have to see it for myself! And I'll have to invite you over for dinner sometime soon.

After my early rise, shower, coffee, breakfast, and writing yesterday's edition of this blog, it was time to meet with Melissa Walden for my 4:45am training session. I fully expected to be doing the same workout from last Thursday morning. Uh, no. After a quick warm-up on the treadmill, Melissa positioned a boxing bag in the middle of the room. She then informed me and my legs that we were going to do some kick boxing style exercises. All of a sudden I had flashbacks to that killer class at the YMCA where she had me kicking until I couldn't kick anymore. You know, if I pretend to have left something important in the car—maybe I can high tail it out of here...STOP IT---I was ready—or at least that's what I kept telling myself. We did several kicks: straight forward kicks, side kicks, round-house kicks, and then a combination right-left kicking exercise that made me feel like Chuck Norris for a few seconds. Just a few. Melissa made sure I was keeping proper form, at one point refusing to let me stop until my foot struck the bag in proper position. That'll make you get it right! You mean if I get it right we can stop my assault on this poor little bag? Yes, yes---and I did get it right.

We corrected my form on some of the other exercises I've been doing from last session and she even added some and tweaked others for optimum efficiency. Oh, she's good---real good. The stretching is such a vital component, and the one part I often ignore. I don't think she's going to allow me to ignore it any longer. My legs felt wobbly and my arms twitched from the weight training movements. I learned that small changes to form can make the biggest difference in our ability to do a particular movement. If I'm having trouble with something, chances are good I just need to adjust my position, or form—as I like to call it now. Imagine that, me—a former 505 pound man, concerned about form.

If I could, I would meet with her every single day for a workout. Oh my—it was and always is a great workout. And you know what I noticed? I do a better morning show after a workout like this. Seriously, I'm a little more open and myself when I'm feeling really good. It's a big enough difference that one of my listeners called this morning and commented “you're sure lively this morning.” Thank you---I really should be that lively every morning.

I decided to work through lunch and just eat my mid-morning snack to hold me over until I arrived back at the apartment. On the way back to the apartment, I grabbed some smoked chicken at a popular BBQ place. I don't order the meal---just the chicken. They try to explain the value of the meal and I try to explain that I don't want potato salad and beans, or bread and sauce. I'm simply interested in the chicken. It's so good and so perfectly smoked, it's all I need! And it's cheaper than if I had bought it at the store and tried to cook it myself. Oh wow, it was some really good chicken! After eating and answering some emails---I decided that I must have a nap. I'm so proud of myself! I actually enjoyed a controlled nap of an hour and fifteen minutes. So much better than my schedule scrambling three hour snooze fest!

The evening was planned. I had a script reading to attend with my fellow actor friends, Amber was coming in from school for the weekend, and I had another workout to enjoy before bed. My day was pretty solid. I like it a bunch. It really got me to thinking about choices and the importance of taking it one day at a time.

Linda, a regular reader, sent me an email with the “one day at a time” message, and it's so true. This journey isn't about 487 days of concentrated effort. I didn't start off on day 1 thinking---Ok, I need to make it this number of days and I'll be over 230 pounds lighter, no---it's just one day. One day of good choices. Not perfect choices, just good choices. Today is the only thing that matters at this moment. If I can get through this day and be proud of my choices, and then put a bunch of these days back to back with each other---then, well---my life will change. That's so important to remember on this journey. I guess that's why this time I never filled out a calendar with goal weights for the entire year. I always did it before when I tried to lose weight. But this time I wasn't and I'm not worried about any other day except my choices today. I'm not saying that writing down goals is bad, it's not. I'm just saying that I always concentrated on the entire journey---forgetting to concentrate on just one day. Instead of looking at the potential results scribbled on a calendar, I've worked on one day at a time---taking those results and the rewards along the way. Yeah...this time is so different from all the rest. That's an understatement.

Thanks for reading. Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean