Day 624 Exercising The "MRST's" and No More Passing The Antacid

Day 624

Exercising The “MRST’s” and No More Passing The Antacid

I was up slightly before 4am with a plan. I wanted to get all of my pre-breakfast and pre-show routine finished and still have time to prepare breakfast for dad and me. There’s something very manly and cool in sitting across the table from your father and having a cup a joe, great conversation, and a 200 calorie two-egg omelet. Can you tell I’m soaking this up as much as I can? Dad was up and riding shotgun all morning during my radio show. He didn’t go on the air with me today, but he will on Thursday morning. I’m looking forward to introducing him to my radio audience.

After a good show, I took an early lunch to drop dad off at the apartment. I really wanted to take some extra time off this week, and I’ll have a chance on Friday morning. Until then, it’s pretty much business as usual as far as the schedule goes. I really feel bad about that, but this week couldn’t be helped---just a timing thing really.

Dad took me out to dinner tonight at a wonderful little Mexican place I picked. El Potrillo is one of my favorites. I did all of my little “Mexican Restaurant Survival Tricks,” or MRST’s for short. I ordered water with extra lemons, I counted out 10 chips from the basket, sitting them on a napkin, and I stayed away from the rice and beans, ordering two tacos—one chicken, one beef---from the side menu. Little changes in my approach make all the difference in the world. And I’m still full---satisfied full, not stuffed full. My choices were solid at this place---and the enjoyment of the company and food was immense.

After dinner, we traveled over to Irene’s place to pick up my big outdoor grill. We didn’t think I could have it at the apartment, so she was keeping it for me. Turns out I can have it on my balcony, so we made our way over and found a wasp nest under the lid. Uh---I don’t like wasp. And guess what, neither does dad! We brought it to the apartment and made our way upstairs for a little more visiting before I headed out on my bike for a late night workout.

The changes in the way I approach food at home and restaurants are pretty major. We no longer pass the Zantac as casually as we do the potatoes. A perfect example of this change can be found in my post from May 31st, 2009. Here’s an excerpt:

The amazing differences in our family dinner table are quite a contrast. We buy less, we prepare much less food, we set the table with just enough for everyone to have a serving, and guess what? Everybody is satisfied! Nobody gets stuffed, none of us gorge on anything, there isn't enough food set on the table for seconds, it works really nice. After we all prepare our plates, we go through the calorie counts of each one. It's hard to imagine eating like we did before. I can remember preparing enough pasta to feed eight hungry people, and the four of us would eat until we needed medication. At our dinner tables of past, you could just as easily hear “Pass The Zantac” as “Pass the potatoes.” No joke. After a giant meal it was a normal thing to pass around the Zantac bottle. Isn't that horrible? I can remember preparing two trays of enchiladas for the four of us. Twenty enchiladas for four people! We usually had left overs, but still, those would be gone within twenty-four hours easy. We make really good enchiladas! It's really wonderful to be over that way of eating. We're finished stuffing and gorging. We're finished being completely out of control. We're all learning how wonderful eating responsible normal portions can be. It's really a refreshing change that we've needed for a very long time. And I honestly can't remember the last time we all sat around after a giant meal, hurting from the gorge, and passing around the Zantac. That just doesn't happen anymore.

I found an important message about consistency in the post from a year ago today. Here’s another excerpt, this one from the next day, June 1st, 2009:

After going through 260 days of this journey, and losing 170 pounds so far, I can tell you without a doubt, it gets much easier! If you're on a similar journey, my best advice is to be consistent with your commitment. Set the rules and stick to them. Because once you do this, and you start feeling and seeing positive results, it just catapults you to new levels of strength. I knew from the very beginning that I didn't have any room to rationalize even one bad choice. I knew my history. I knew that if I really wanted to finally do this and stick with it, I had to do some things differently. I had to completely throw out the excuses and rationalizations that tripped me up so many times.

Despite my “everything is permitted” style, I still might sound really strict sometimes. I do because if I don't, I may try to take advantage of that weakness, completely going against what I want and need to accomplish. I've said many times along this journey, after searching for the reason I could never get it together 100% before, I concluded that I was my own worst enemy. I was taking complete responsibility for my morbid obesity and demanding something better from me. I did and I do, that's a really big part of my success so far. Something better for me means sticking with the plan everyday. It means being consistent and not giving into temptation while making myself feel better with rationalizations. The importance level is way too high to be soft about the rules I've set.

That's something I've talked about before at the “Lose To Win” Seminars. Making it a top priority and getting really dramatic about sticking to the plan is a difference maker! It doesn't matter if you have 20 or 200 to lose. If you make it a top priority, a really serious deal, then you have a much better chance of accomplishing the goal. Too many times in my past, I didn't get real serious, and I always ended up making excuses and rationalizing bad choices until I was completely off the wagon. I always said how important it was, I always dreamed of what it would be like to be successful at losing the weight, but when it came right down to it, Mr. Funny-Happy Go Lucky guy was too easy-going to ever get real serious with myself. I was way too easy on me. It never took too much for me to rationalize a bad choice. I'm still a fun happy kind of guy, but when it comes to this journey, there's no compromising the commitment. It's too important.

When I returned from my bike ride, dad was lounging in front of the TV, watching Fox News, and wearing his pajama bottoms without a shirt. For 63, this guy has maintained a build! That’s where I get these solid pectorals and rock hard abs! Of course mine are still hiding underneath a little bit, but it doesn’t mean they’re not there. Oh yeah, that natural build is there all right…Thanks dad! Just looking at dad, I can tell that we have the same kind of hair…good deal. I’ll have muscle tone and a full head of hair at 63---very nice! I need to ask him when he started going fully gray…hmmm, I’ll color, I swear I will!! I kid…

Tomorrow will be busy most of the day. I plan on spinning at 5:30, but after a full workday and workout, we’re having a family cookout. The girls are coming over for a wonderful visit and pictures---plenty of pictures! I’m seriously looking forward to posting more pictures in the coming days.

Thank you for reading. Goodnight and…

Good Choices,
Sean