Tuesday, August 18, 2015

August 18th, 2015 How Long Will This Take?

August 18th, 2015 How Long Will This Take?

This day, oh my. It got out of hand very quickly. I was challenged in several different ways. I picked up Noah from daycare after I left the studio, headed home and wasn't home very long before returning for weather coverage. Noah stayed at my place with a friend of mine while I went back to work. 

I participated in the Tuesday night support group conference call as best I could, from the studio, but my work duties kept me off the call for the majority. Thankfully Life Coach Gerri stepped in and took it home tonight. 

Dinner was pushed back excessively late--and oh yeah, those exercise plans for today? Not happening. I'm thoroughly exhausted physically and mentally.

I've enjoyed having Noah, although I feel like I've hardly spent time with him today. Thank goodness for good friends! 

He's getting really attached. He didn't want me to leave this morning when I took him to his classroom at the Child Development Center. This is very rare. He usually sees the kids and toys and he's ready to play! Then tonight, after the long day--he immediately wanted me to pick him up. When I put him back down, he wanted up again and again. I honored each request. Perhaps I shouldn't give him everything he wants, but I felt bad for being away most of the day.

We were discussing time and impatience for results in our weekly group this evening. It reminded me of something I wrote a while back. It's interesting to me--very telling actually, the original version doesn't mention accountability or support one time. The revised version does, of course. I thought I would share the updated/revised 2015 version--

Revised/updated--
How Long Will This Take?
We live in an instant society. Everything happens now. When something takes a little longer we get impatient. Surely there’s a way to make it go faster! When this impatient attitude is applied to weight loss, many people turn to diet pills or “miracle” products that promise quick results. I’ve done it before too! But I’ve learned that there’s just no substitute for eating in a responsible way, exercising and building a good accountability and support structure.

You might get some temporary results with the latest fad diet, but none of us want temporary. We want a real solid change. And those changes come with consistent effort, a responsible diet and exercise plan that leans on accountability and support, and the willingness to learn new habits. Losing weight isn’t an instant thing, it takes patience and consistency. The results may not be now, but the results will come.

Again, how long are we talking? At over 500 pounds it was very easy for me to get discouraged about the answer to that question. I allowed my impatience to ruin many weight loss attempts because I wanted the results now, and if we’re not getting what we want we get frustrated, and when we’re frustrated it makes it unnecessarily difficult to stay focused.

But what I’ve learned has proven to me that time doesn’t matter. If you allow yourself to get discouraged about the task at hand and the time it will take to accomplish your goal, then you’re putting your focus in the wrong place.

Forget about time and just start making the changes you know must be made.

Before you know it you’ll have made amazing strides toward your goal in surprisingly little time. Because guess what? Time doesn’t care if you do this or not. Time will keep moving with or without you. So how long is this going to take? As long as it needs.

Because this isn’t something you’re doing for a couple of months. The changes in your mind and habits are changes that will hopefully be with you the rest of your life, these kind of changes are exactly what give us the best chance at lasting success.

So how do we forget about time and still get results in a timely manner? One word: Consistency.

My results may seem too fast to some, but those around me know exactly why they’ve come so fast. It’s consistency. In the past I would do well three days then bad for four. Pick it up on Monday and do well until Friday, then eat like a mad man on the weekend. This inconsistency severely crippled my results and it seemed like it was taking forever to get anywhere.

If you would have asked how I was doing during those times, I would have replied “doing great, it’s a slow process, but I’m getting there.” It wasn’t until I became completely honest about my consistency issues that I was able to realize such dramatic results in so little time.

Forget about time and be consistent in your efforts to eat responsibly, exercise, build your accountability and support structure--and honestly change your mind and habits with these activities and like magic, you’ll enjoy the most amazing multifaceted transformation--in hardly anytime at all.
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I weigh tomorrow morning and if how I feel at this very moment is any indication, it might be a record weigh day. Not in pounds lost, but pounds gained while not off the rails! 

All of the elements are coming together for this to happen: I haven't exercised for three days straight, my calories are comfortably at 2,000 each day and since there wasn't any way I was coming home to cook late this evening, I picked up dinner from the Mexican place close to my apartment--a sodium filled fajita chicken and squash with taco shells, lettuce cheese and sour cream. 

A good support friend suggested I give myself a break and skip tomorrow's weigh-in. I could wait until next week. But nah--I'm not afraid. It'll be whatever it is. This is good practice, because not every week will be text book--some weeks will get crazy--some days will feel chaotic--workouts could be missed, water goals not hit and sodium limits shattered!! 

What I can say with certainty: I maintained the integrity of my calorie budget. I'm "food sober" and I maintained my commitment to abstinence from refined sugar. Those are kind of a big deal. 

Deep breath--everything will be okay and just fine. Tomorrow night's entry could be interesting. 

By the way--my apologies for getting behind on email and blog comment replies. I haven't had a chance, seriously. If you've asked a question--it's important to me and I will get back with you soon! 

Noah is sound asleep. My goal in the next 15 minutes is to go to bed without waking him. I take him back to his Nana's (Irene's) tomorrow. And I know, as soon as I leave, I'll be missing him again.  

My Tweets Today:




















Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

12 comments:

  1. Relax Sean, I honestly doubt you gained any weight at 2000 calories per day. Also remember what you eat is IMO over 90% to do with what weight you become & exercise will determine how healthy you become and how good of a body you present. Sure over time, months you can bulk up with weight training but one week is not going to make any difference. Any scale weight you observe if there is any gain will be nothing but water weight. I doubt very much you have gained any back at 2000 eating the way you are regardless how much exercise you get. In fact, it's more likely you lost more weight if anything due to your still probably underrating and have lost a bit of muscle. Your fine and over time you will adjust accordingly and I think maintenance will go very smoothly in presence of no added sugar.

    It's so very true about people being impatient with weight loss. I know from my own transformation now at 20 months from the day of going no added sugar has allowed myself to be consistently OK or better nearly 100% of the time. No artifical sweeteners or added sugar has everything to do with my successes which I am sure you can relate too. Being consistently OK as worst case scenario, very slow to no weight loss periods mixed in with periods of consistently good or even great periods has been the recipe of success. I can say with certainty, the true difference is I am no longer having to deal with consistently bad periods where I binge eat or experience unavoidable food eating binges. Another explanation why trapped in a sugar individuals like myself have no chance of loosing the weight vs loosing all the weight and keeping it off through maintenance. Once you understand you no longer have to deal with anything less than consistently OK then the understanding becomes quite clear that loosing the weight does not need to be a race since that time is short compared to the time you need to maintain the weight the rest of your life. Without that frame of mind weight loss becomes most important very easy compared to weight maintenance and reason why so many people gain some or all the weight back. Once the understanding is consistently OK or better the rest of your life weight maintenance is as important as weight loss and really does not matter so much how fast the actual excess weight takes to get off. 1/2, even 1/4 pound a week is very fast and awesome progress.

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    1. I wish I could get into that sugar free mindset myself.

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  2. I think it's really really hard when you have so much on your plate as far as working , children, dinner prep for the family, house hold duties. Yes it can be done but man it's tough when this is the norm for day to day life. I also think you'll be fine in the weight department. It will be fun to see. I'm glad you're not putting it off I think that's the easy way out and could become a habit. Good luck!!!

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  3. I'm glad you're not skipping your weigh in. You have a great attitude about it - real life means that perfection isn't happening all the time and that includes in weight loss maintenance. There will be ups and downs (ha! I crack myself up).

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  4. Okay...I posted a comment on here earlier this morning stating I appreciate you writing this journal and that I've read every word of it. I then stated reading this journal helped me to avoid eating 600+ calories of junk food after 9:30 pm last night; which helped me stay within my 2,000 calories per day budget. Please let me know why this earlier comment was deleted so that I'll know what line was improperly crossed. Thank you Sean.

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    1. You posted that comment on yesterday's post.

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    2. TL- You didn't cross any lines! :) You left that particular comment on a previous blog page. I haven't had a chance to catch up. You're good!

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    3. And I sincerely appreciate your support, TL. I'm so happy this journal has resonated with you in a wonderful way!

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    4. Sean, I'm sorry about making that mistake and celebrate your continued success. Way to go! My wife and I are on the 5:2 plan (for improved pancreas processing of insulin, not weight loss) and my memory is not good on the low-calorie days at all!

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  5. Am so happy to see how you handled having to miss the support group meeting. It reminds me that I have to flow with major changes in the day that can throw a monkey wrench into my commitments. Thanks again for your example Sean!
    N~

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  6. 1.2 pounds down is great news, which means thanks to no added sugar and avoiding most processed foods your burning metabolism is operating at peak efficiency. I think the only reason your perplexed considering you did not exercise so much is something I noticed and observed for the past 20 months weighing myself every day. The biggest weight drops always occur when your inactive after a extended period of time some kind of weight training. The biggest gains or times you think you should be loosing weight always occur during extreme weight training followed by a relative inactive period. I can almost guarantee if you have an extreme weight training week at 2000 calories per day you will likely gain a pound or two by next week. Weight gain from weight training would be short term before you started loosing weight again, probably settle in around 210, very fit and trim if you continue at 2000 per day. You can also bulk up become very fit and trim, stronger at 230 but you will need to increase your calorie intake to at least 2400 possibly as high as 2600 to reach optimum level. IMO you have a lot of room to play with in both directions and your at the perfect weight at the start of maintenance. I am guessing you still have not mentally adjusted to the fact no added sugar, eating clean is most likely allowing you to eat 400-600 more calories at your current weight most people normally do not benefit from. The best news is when you add the extra calories in form of all nutrition, clean eating, foods your already eating, you get another bump or discount in added calories from peaking your burning metabolism even more. Extreme exercise or weight lifting days you would have no problem consuming and burning at least 3500 calories and would advise you to eat back your calories burned through exercise. Especially if you want to bulk up to look more fit and trim looking at 235 pounds than you do now at 218. Now is the time to experiment and looking forward to what path you choose.

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  7. Something you wrote on your blog today hit me funny. Ok, not funny.. but the thing you said about how long "it" takes. For me its when people ask me "how long did it take you to lose 76lbs?" Are you done? hmm... are we ever done? No. As heavy people it is always a struggle. If its eating sugar or a chip we will always have our triggers. So , no we are never done.. life long... mindful eating and the rest will follow.

    Have a great weekend ahead!
    Rosie

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I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. Thank you for your support!