56 Pounds Down! 54 Pounds To Go!

January 2012 Approximately 280 Pounds

Today I went to the gym, worked on cardio with the treadmill, used the tanning booth then stepped on the scale. 233.5, I lost 2 1/2 pounds this past week! What is even cooler is I am at the midway point towards my goal of 180 pounds!

 When  I started really bringing integrity into my health and well being by using MyFitnessPal to log and track my diet, exercise and weight. I wasn't sure how this would look. I mean I have dieted several times before. How was this going to be different from the other times.

 What has worked is being honest in logging what I eat. Prior to this I was blowing smoke up my @$$ about how much I ate. The second was logging my exercise which initially consisted of sailing competitively once or twice a week. The third was consistently weighing myself on a regular basis. Initially it was once a week, now that I have a gym membership it is three or four times a week, though it is Wednesday's that I "officially" weigh myself.  This structure has provided me access to seeing what works and what doesn't. Last September I took a couple weeks off from logging my food and exercise. I also didn't weigh myself and I gained back about 6 pounds. 

Today, 233.5 Pounds

If I had been consistent in my weighing and logging, I would have seen the weight gain while it was still a pound or two, and then made corrections. And seeing where my lack of integrity was has created a renewed commitment to being honest in my logging.

 By having this structure to fulfill on, my goal of 180 pounds is achievable  it is real. It will be the lightest I weighed in close to 25 years. And it really is accessible  I have put in place the structure required to fulfill on it. These past eight months have shown me that I can do it, 56 pounds down, 54 pounds to go. And with the incorporation of the gym along with a heavy sailing season just beginning it will probably occur in less than 24 weeks. 

There has been a breakthrough in my relationship to diet and exercise, I really enjoy being healthy! 

Emergence

January 18, 2012 - Approximately 277 lbs. 

Hello, my name is Paul, some of you may know me from my other blog, New Realm Adventures, others know me in person or through the internet. I like the phrase new realm, like a new world emerging that is yet to be defined. In my other blog I started with a Declaration, this bold declaration was the line in the sand, the beginning of a new conversation to emerge and new actions to take. And it was a rocky start.





Here is my Declaration of Independence!

In 1776 a bunch of men got together in Philadelphia and created something, something that never existed before, they created the United States of America. 

And the United States began when they declared that it existed.

Two days ago I posted on my Facebook page the following:
Ok, it is February 3, 2012. I am now just past 50 years of age. I stand 6' tall, my cholesterol level is borderline high at 230 and I weigh 277 lbs. While that around 25-40 lbs. less than I was last summer, it is still 77 pounds more than what I am committed to weighing.

Now you may say to yourself, why is Paul posting too much information about his health and well-being? It is because if I do not create a conversation about my health & well-being and what I am creating then it is all a monologue in my head. In a monologue health/well-being gets collapsed into a should do, must do, have to do, you can't do it discussion. A discussion that gets the result of being an over-weight man of 50.

So now by posting this I am putting out into the world, a new conversation is born, it is born in dialogue rather than monologue. In this conversation a new possibility exists, the possibility passion, abundance and health.

This is my declaration that the next fifty years will be lived passionately and abundantly, going all out and as a natural by product my health and well being exists to empower me to be the contribution I am to others.
So in conjunction and support of my declaration to live life passionately, abundantly and to be a contribution to others I am beginning this blog. As the blog evolves and transforms I will share more of who I am, what I care for and who you all are for me. It is a new adventure and I love adventures.
Paul

Whats so today

As I said it was a rocky beginning. I did want to loose weight. I did want to be healthier and I did not have any structure in place to fulfill on it. Hence I floundered around. My weight and my cholesterol levels increased. In March of last year I did start sailing competitively on a 36' sailboat. It was my one constant form of exercise. And for someone who wasn't exercising any form was better than no form. 

One of the things that I became aware of while sailing was that my weight was a hindrance to my performance on the boat and was detrimental to the boat performing as well as it should. Now I had an immediate reason to loose the weight. In June I went in for more lab tests, weight and cholesterol up. I wasn't surprised but the cholesterol numbers were getting scary high. The doctor of pharmacy at the VA called and we discussed it. He was leaning towards medications for the cholesterol and I told him how I would rather work on that holistically. He then suggested I enroll in the Veterans Administration's MOVE Program. I first had a intake class, three hours of diet and nutrition, along with weigh in. On July 25, 2012, I was at my first meeting of MOVE, my weight was 289.9, today March 18, 2013 almost 8 months later I weigh 236 pounds. In January when I had my lab work done, my cholesterol was 36/104 with triglycerides at 118. My doctor declared that as long as I continued with what I was doing, there was no need for medications nor for semi-annual lab tests.

February 2013

Still you may say, why this blog? Well I am an average Joe, was not overweight in my youth, did not really begin to bring on extra weight until late 20's and early 30's. Even then I was chubby and not obese. When I left the Navy I then lost a structure to maintain weight. No longer having to meet physical standards I ate what I wanted and however much I wanted. And gradually I climbed up in weight. I also decreased my exercise levels. Did yo-yo dieting and could not keep the weight off. Sound like you? And I did find a solution to health and well being. It is a balanced approach, nothing radical or earth shattering. Just simple portion control, exercise and being rigorous in logging what I eat and how much I exercise. The other part was gaining a new perspective on diet, exercise, health and well-being. That new point of view has transformed my entire approach towards being healthy.

So this blog is about living a life of health and well being. It isn't about any special, magic diet. They work in the short run but my experience is that the weight has always came back. It isn't about any nutritional supplements, been there and done that and gained weight. It isn't about a set exercise regime either. I am not a personal trainer. It is about attitude and my experience of things that have worked for me.

It is about how I created a structure for fulfillment to measure the results of my actions and my inaction, it is about bringing integrity into the conversation. It is about things that have worked, things that haven't worked. Finally it is where I hope to provide you, the reader with items that you can incorporate into your own life and really fulfill on what it is you want to accomplish, especially in the area of health and well being.