Day 44 - 53

Hello Clarice….

I promise tonight there will be no more tales of unfair scales or the conspiracy of the company (won’t call out the name to protect them of course) that built my new scale against me.  No - no theories or rants - its already in the past.  Just like Timon always says - “you got to put your behind in your past.”  And let me tell you - I have quite a behind!  ;)

Lots of things have happened over the past 9 (er) days.  (did I catch a 9er in there?)  On the evening of my last dissertation on life I had just gone to my first “boot camp” workout.  Since then I have been back now 4 more times.  I will say that it took 2 full days to recover from the first workout, but since then the pain has subsided and by the next morning I am good to go.  Guess that means its working?  Anyway, I have been able to do more and more of the activites (or do them faster/better) as the sessions have gone on.  It is truly incredible what your body can do when your mind is involved.  Does it hurt sometimes?  Yes…of course.  But, when you know the pain is temporary then you know you can push through.  The only nagging thing for me is some pretty severe arch pain in my right foot when I run for a long period of time.  I did some reading and am going to look for better shoes and some shoe inserts for arch support.  Hopefully that will solve the problem.  I had originally thought my knees would be the major problem, but while I wear a brace on my bad knee while working out, it usually comes off mid session and there is no more or less pain without it.  Outside of those workouts, still doing regular workouts in the gym.  In fact, I’ve missed only 1 day since July 21st.  Woot!  (yes I just said Woot! - wanna fight about it?)

I also started using MyFitnessPal when I last left you.  I’m pretty much in love with this application…ok I admit it…I AM in love with this application.  I have yet to find a food that isn’t already loaded into this app.  The only time it becomes difficult is when you go out to each at a non chain restaurant.  So, on days like this you can look up the calories etc of the food you are eating and enter it in manually.  My allotted calorie intake per day is 2090 - though I can say I have only gotten close to that 1 time - DAMN YOU beer for tasting so good.  Other then that, I’ve been staying around the 1600 calorie mark daily.  Its great - if you eat something that is store bought - you can scan the barcode and all of the health information is then loaded into your tracker.   That is ALMOST as super/perfect as I am!  You also have the ability to enter in your workouts so you can deduct those calories from your daily total.  Its very motivating to not grab that extra snack at night when you look down and see you are at 450 net calories for the day.  (or you can grab that 1 beer and savor every second of it….NOT that I have done that or anything)  I really can’t say enough good things about it - if you are at all interested in reducing your calorie intake I HIGHLY recommend downloading this app to your Verizon Wireless Smartphone!  (let me plug my company - thank you)  I can tell you that nightly I think of snacking and look at my phone and go - no - you are doing so well today.  It gives you willpower when you might not have had any already.  Ok, enough about this app for today - but if anybody knows anyone that developed this app - I’d like to be a non-celebrity spokesman.  Maybe I could be the Jared of MyFitnessPal?  Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Now here is the fun part - the numbers!  (really though - to me the numbers/data are the fun part)  Tonight I will do it in a countdown kinda way

53 Days without a drop of soda/tea
37 Days without a drop of caffeine
27 Pounds lost since my heaviest weight
17 Pounds lost in the last 53 days
6 Pounds lost since the “great scale scandal” of 2011
5 Pounds to go until my first goal is reached!  (hello new tattoo!!!)

Last thing to brag about - by the time I hit 5 more pounds off and my goal I will be officially down one pant size in 53 days.  (ok, truth serum here - its more like 2 because on day 0 the pants I was wearing were WAY too tight and now they are falling down)  This is great because it means an entire wardrobe of clothes starts to open up to me by then.  I put on some of my old dress pants the other day and they fit but just a wee bit snug, so guaranteed in 5 pounds I’m going to be looking fine…or something closely resembling fine…or really I’m gonna look like a smaller but still awkward looking me.  (sigh) 

Last thought for the night is this - I’m starting to understand more of why I have failed miserably in the past on my health.  The most important part of your body when it comes to being healthy is your brain.  If you are not convinced that you can do it, or not committed to it then you may succeed in the short term, but long term things will go back to where they were.  So far, my short term brain is strong…I can only hope and work towards my long term brain being as strong.  (who knew?  Apparently I am not totally sick in the head - just mostly)

This is it - I’m done writing for the evening.  One of these fine days, I will write less perhaps.

Until then, I must tell you that I never picked up an illegal alien at Home Depot to take home a choke me while I touch myself.  That is all.  Thank you.

LANDIS