Wellness Update :-)

On January 15 of this year, I decided to to start my path to wellness. And yes with the birth of my son, I've really been distracted from updating and keeping an accountability record for myself on this journey.  So here is a brief update of the last 2.5 months.

As planned, I've cut out soda. This is HUGE for me. I had to take a tiered approach.  Water at home, and soda when at restuarants or meals, was step one.  Next was to cut out soda when  eating meals.   After a few weeks of not having soda, I tried some with a meal and it ended up making me ill.  I've tried once again since ,and same result.  Thus, I am soda free.   The only downside is I am still drinking some lightly carbonated energy drinks, which I know I need to desperately get rid of and get back to me teas. That is my next step on that front.  However, I feel I can still check off the 'Cutting Soda' from my to-do list.

Now that I am drinking mostly water, am I staying hydrated? No. because I am not drinking enough water.  I am admittantly only at about 1-3 of my daily water goal...which honestly, if I were to hit, I would likely not need energy drinks. I've been down that road before and found that to be the case.  I need to press harder to hit that goal.

How about the portion control teamed with what is being eaten? Well, the wife and I are working on that.  I would say that while I am eating a little better, but not like I could/should.  I've been looking at some great recipes that would help.


Honestly, the next step will have to be exercise.  Not likely to go much more forward without it.


So onto what the results have been.  My clothes are fitting better.  As a matter of fact, when I went to buy a new belt, I had to drop a size lower.  Actually I will not wear out this belt by the time I have to drop another size. :-)  So other than a few inches shaved away, I've dropped a total of 29.9 lbs.

Making progress.

Next time I might also talk about our son, but at this point I won't likely put any photos up until we have gotten a nice family photo. He is doing great and being a wonderful little two month old. :-)

Until Next Time,
TRP

Welcome To Wellness

Time to get serious.

Wellness starts from within. Wellness is more important that weight-loss. When you try to lose weight, it tends to just be a diet fad.  You must determine that you want your health to be better overall, not just to dodge a fee from insurance or to fit into some old clothes you have laying about. You know, the ones that you keep, just in case.
When you get into a wellness mindset, you begin to not just worry about losing weight or fitting older clothes and you make better choices.

Why am I doing this?  It took two years, but I have gained back all of the weight that I lost, and actually went a couple pounds (2.7 actually) beyond where I have been before. I've decided that I am going to be healthy, not just for me but for my wife and son.

Primary reasons for me getting into better health is that my wife and son deserve it.  They need me at my best, so I should be my best!  There are also other reason that I want to get healthy.

1. One is that my insurance company will be adding a 20-40 per check charge for not being within their ideal range of bio-metrics. I'd like to get that gone. :-) 
2. Being able to buy a suit at Walmart would be nice. Okay, this isn't saying that I actually desire a George brand suit, but it means, less time looking about at the specialty stores and maybe even being able to find something at a Goodwill or Thrift shop. 
3. I do have some older expensive suites that I would love to get back into. LOL
4. Better health means a better me.  I know for a fact that losing a bit a weight and staying away from certain foods will make me feel so much better. Breath easier, less other health issues and genuinely enjoy life much more fuller. When you feel better physically, it helps emotionally and spiritually.  I plan on being a healthy example for my son. 

So, whats the plan?

1. Count Calories / Portion Control. This is were MyFitnessPal will be used a bit. I'm going to get back into the habit of using this cool tool, and possible others like it (SparkPeople, LoseIt!, etc). This one will help me cut weight pretty quick, until I reach a certain plateau. However, to help prevent that.....
2. Exercise.  Yeah, You cannot lose weight without at least doing 20 minutes a day of some sort of cardiovascular activity.  I have some steps here at work that I will start taking instead of the elevator (three floors ain't much, but its a nice start).  Then I plan on walking for the rest of the 20 minutes a day.  Then at least 2-3 times a week, I will be taking a hike...or at least a 5k walk. It just so happens that the distance between my current abode and the local Kroger is just over 5k (5.18 kilometers to be closer to accurate), so this will work well for me until we move.  Also, not to say that I will ONLY walk, I will be doing some other exercises from Wii-Fit. Before you laugh, this combined with calorie counting is what helped me lose 40+ lbs a few years ago. Then I plateaued and didn't do anything else, eventually I stopped doing all of these things and well, slowly lost the lifestyle that kept me low.  After a little over 2 years, I've gained it all back... so I will continue on.
3. Not just cutting back what I eat, looking closer at what I eat.  Cutting back on starches, sugars and sodium could help quite a bit. Again, the goal isn't just to drop 155-200lbs, it is to also be healthy.  I know some of the chemicals in my food are "safe" per the FDA and what not, however, I have seen how they work on the human body. It is one thing to say that this item will not kill you, and another to say that this wont have any negative impact on your life...
4. Stay Hydrated. It isn't enough to drink water, you have to drink the right amount.  Too little or too much can both be harmful.  There have been signs here at my work for a bit over a month now that talk to how much water you need to drink.  Essentially it is half of your body weight. For example, if you weight 200 lbs (I wish), you would need 100oz of water a day or roughly 5 bottles of water. 
5. Cutting Soda.  Honestly, I will have a very hard time with this. But in the long run, getting rid of the sugars, sodium, and other chemicals there are in soda, will do me good. Again, it is part of looking at what I consume.
6. Plexus Slim.  Before anyone starts screaming about MLM and how its a trap.   I briefly used it before, and it did help me a little.  It was what was left of a sample pack that my wife got, after she stopped taking it when she became pregnant. Not only did it help me, we are fairly certain that her taking it is what allowed us to have our wonderful child who will be born in the next couple of weeks. I'm not trying it as a 'weight loss' tool.  I like the fact that it helps maintain healthy blood pressure, as well as cholesterol and lipid levels. If it helps with weight-loss too, that's cool.  But again, I'm going for total wellness, not just dropping pounds/inches.

If you follow my this blog via the blogger page rather than on my website, you will see that the MyFitnessPal counter has been reset to zero. I'm going to take a picture and measurements...Then I shall begin my journey to a better me. 

Let the games begin. :-)

Until Next Time,

TRP