Post-Thanksgiving Goals

So you have eaten the entire turkey will all the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet corn bread, pies and other delectable deserts. "Crap I should give up, oh well I already screwed it up. I will work on this diet thing later" Sound familiar?

Many times it is easy to lose site with all of the holiday food, friends, family and stress to help encourage bad eating habits. One thing I have done is to make a conscious effort by thinking about how good I feel after jogging or lifting weights. Being able to look into the future at your goals and noticing the small steps is an essential part of your success. I really feel these good habits can and will begin to infect others around you. Remember to eat enough food, exercise at any level for 30 minutes a day or an hour every other day and eat in moderation. That's it folks. Eat less calories then your body requires, put out more effort to solidify successful results.

I am reading a great book by Moshe Feldenkraise called "Awareness through Movement" which may be in reprint thinking about it, but I digress. Moshe teaches about body awesness and how you can greatly change your posture, health and confidence just by the way we hold ourselves. Moshe puts it perfectly from his book and captures how to make changes by becomming aware of progressive changes in the body, especially the small ones.

"Only the experience of change and close attention will convince us to think and direct ourselves differently. Only when this experience of change causes us to discredit and inhibit the accustomed pattern, which appears invalid to us, will we be able to accept this new pattern as habit or second nature.Theoretically, all that is needed is an effort of the mind, but in practice this is insuficient. Our nervous system is so constructed that habits are preserved and seek to perpetuate themselves. It is easier to stop a habit by means of traumatic shock then to change it gradually. This is a functional difficulty and this is why it is important to pay close attention to every improvement and to assimulate it....it is important to know and understand the connection between change and it's causes in order to encourage one to repeat the experience with sufficient accuracy under similar conditions to reinforce its effect and impress improvement deeply on our senses"

Crap that's a mouthful, but I believe this is very important to understand.

Until next post, Namaste

Goals achieved today
--------------------------
*Morning Run - 2 miles with 3 interval sprints

*Ate breakfast right after run and drank V8 (used to hate this stuff! Love it now..weird)

*Ate a 2.50 Gyro w/o fries for black Friday at Dr. Gyro (This is an accomplishment for me)

*Bought "The Gold Standard" Hydro Whey protein (best natural whey on the market) $30 with gold membership at GNC on black Friday, woot! Trying creatine again (unflavored)

*Ate snacks today

*Weight remained the same since yesterday meaning I survived the super carbs!

*Planning on doing p90x Shoulders and Arm workout along with Yoga-X and then a movie with light popcorn

Total calories projected for the day 1850 after dinner, popcorn and amazing new low carb natural whey protein shake!

Success...yeeeesh!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Click on the "Happy Thanksgiving" title above for a special song!

This is my second favorite holiday mainly because of the Mashed potato's and excuse to be lazy and do nothing but eat, sleep and play video games! Now, there is no problem with this necessarily and many people deserve a day to just say "Ah screw it!" However, does anyone really like the feeling of being stuffed like a crazy obese turkey? I know we (society) tends to push proportions through the ceiling, so after time many people adapt to eating larger portions and learn to deal with feeling full. It's not the tryptophan putting you to sleep, it's the abundance of calories stuffed into your body! It try's to digest all that food which leads to no energy to keep your eye lids open.

I love eating, but HATE HATE HATE being full. Since I've been active and health conscious more and more, I feel sluggish and gross when I am full. But what about all those mashed potato's and chips, shrimp, PIE!!!!!??? Here are some tips to help remind you and I to at least become aware of healthy guidelines. These tips may help to save one of those naps for normal bedtime.

(The following tips come from http://www.healthcastle.com)

• "Don't go to the Thanksgiving dinner hungry: we often eat faster and more when we are hungry - therefore eat a wholesome breakfast and lunch on the day to avoid overeating at dinner time.
• Thanksgiving dinner is not an all-you-can-eat buffet: Fill your plate half with vegetables, one quarter with a lean meat and the rest with a starch of your choice. Eat slowly and stop when you are full.
• Turkey - go skinless: choose your 4-oz turkey portion skinless to slash away some fat and cholesterol Save your appetite for the side dishes and desserts.
• Side Dishes - watch your portion size: go for smaller portions. This way you can sample all the different foods. Moderation is always the key.
• Make a conscious choice to limit high fat items: high fat food items can be found in fried and creamy dishes as well as cheese-filled casseroles in a traditional Thanksgiving meal . For instance, mashed potatoes are usually made with butter and milk; green bean casseroles are often prepared with cream of mushroom soup, cheese and milk and topped with fried onions; candied yams are loaded with cream, sugar and marshmallows. If you cannot control the ingredients that go in to a dish, simply limit yourself to a smaller helping size. Again moderation is the key.
• Drink plenty of water: alcohol and coffee can dehydrate your body. Drink calorie-free water to help fill up your stomach and keep you hydrated"

These are some simple things to keep in mind when working through the holidays!

Also remember to enjoy your family, friends, and/or yourself if you are working or on your own this holiday. Appreciate yourself, others and give thanks to those who have really inspired you and helped you towards your goals. Appreciation may be a slap on the back, a friendly handshake, smile or a simple nod and wink which may suffice in certain circles ;)

Goals Achieved Yesterday and today...(still to come, commenting later)
-----------------------------------------
*Ate 8 meals today keeping under 1900 calories! Woot!
*Ate peanuts, peanut butter 4tbs, chocolate milk at night, but after
P90X Shoulder's Biceps and Triceps!! Holy crap! If you thought normal push-ups were bad, this takes push ups to the next level..on another note, I HATE FLY exercises! Boo erns! 90 minutes of some kind of awesome hell
*stretching and warming up before working out and also before work this morning
*Adonis Build&Burn II was subbed for P90X, but I will add this tomorrow

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." -John Stewart

OMG Cardio!

TIP of the day: Always remember to eat enough food! Do not starve your body or it will hate you, make you prone to illness, give you insomnia, headaches, and mood swings. If this is what you want by all means have at...otherwise eat enough calories that your body needs.
(link provided in the comments to the American Heart Association)

So I woke up today late from a terrible dream and did not feel very motivated. The feeling from the dream lingered into real life for the first 30 minutes I was awake. I just hate those funky moods don't you? It was rainy and I felt very lazy. "Why not take a day off?" my inner lazy voice reasoned. Inner Dialog: "Running in the rain?" but it's cold and wet, why would you want to do that? How about a grilled cheese sandwich and indoor stretching instead, huh? huh!?" Me:"Damn you, that does sound tempting..but.." ID: "but what? what do ya say..and a MOVIE and VIDEO GAMES!" Me: "He's such a bastard!" I negotiated some options and decided to tell my brain to shut up.

I completed the "OMG Cardio!" workout as I call it (click on the title) + Interval training in the rain. I will break this down;

Warm up: OMG Cardio!
Steady State for 5 minutes (light jogging or brisk walking)
Sprint for 10 seconds at 70% heart rate (use the talk test, more on this later)
rest for 20, sprint for 20 and steady state for 1 minute. And that would be considered a "wave" and this first one is called "Wave I" since it is one minute of sprints and a 1 minute rest. The routine is as follows;

Interval I (once a week), wait until you see Interval II!...I'm going to die
-----------
Pre-Warm up Cardio:
Warm up - 5 minutes
Wave I (1 minute..)
Wave II (2 minutes of sprinting and a 2 minute rest(steady state) )
Wave III (3 min..(6 all out sprinting blocks total for 10 seconds each)
Wave II
Wave I
Cool down & Stretch for 5 minutes
=28 minutes total
-----------

This may not sound too bad, but it kicks your ass! I had trouble breathing..in a good way..hmm not sure how that works.

Following this I completed the "Ab Ripper X" and an additional ab routine set up by a good friend of mine. In one hour I kicked my ass and burned approximately 800 calories = 1 slice of carrot cake at Seattle's Best!! Holy bat flaps! After these workouts you will reconsider eating said carrot cakes. It is ridiculous how much stronger I feel after doing a few of these P90x workouts along with the jogging I have been doing 4-5 times a week. I am so happy! :D

Currently relaxing with a cup of Joe and surrounded by books!

Goals Achieved
--------------
1.Pre Warm Up + Interval I, then breakfast

2.Ate 5 times so far today

3.Completed Ab routines..ouch!

4.Had chocolate milk. Hey that is an accomplishment! I worked for that buddy ;)

Namaste (tomorrow, either Cardio-X or Yoga-X..eek)

Welcome ^-^

Just a quick post. I wanted to start off saying how happy I am to work towards some goals I have had since I was in High School. Every year I would say "This year I want to lose weight and be more active" Every year would pass with little change. This is a real success story in the making and I want to hear about any success stories in health, relationships and personal goals towards doing the things that inspire each of us to dream. Dream no more this is a daily reminder to keep going and bring it!

I will be posting health and relationship related information, but want to use this space as my journal of health each day.

Goals achieved today
--------------------
1.Jogging (almost talked myself out of it after work)
-just did it! results = 2.3 miles under 12 minutes

2.Ate Breakfast, a snack, lunch..now dinner

3.P90x Chest & Back workout 80% of the exercises in the workout complete!

4.Adonis Workout (to be continued in about an hour)

-Andy

"A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step" -Lao Tsu