Biggest Loser..not me yet.

Getting myself back to exercising and eating properly has proven to be difficult, especially since I've allowed myself to get stressed out by many things in my life. Family, my house, business, work, etc.  Fortunately, life is good and I feel better.  Debbie is great and helps me so much. When I expressed how stressed I've been about certain aspects of my life, she immediately began helping me. Our life is not perfect, not by any means, but we work toward improving things. Family is good, the house is getting there as we work to get it ready to sell or rent at some point in the future. We don't have to sell the house, but wish to move up in house within the next year or so. I realize I should count my many blessings since many people have been forced to sell their homes. Debbie and I realize how lucky we are. 

Our business is really taking off as Deb and I work with our business coach who invests her time to make us successful. And we are really gaining traction. My work is OK. It is after all a J O B. I strive to give my company an honest day's work and to be thankful that I have a job that pays me enough to support my family. (pause for the upcoming "but")  BUT, I also realize that my financial future lies in my ability to generate income based on my efforts and ingenuity, not for trading hours for dollars.

I've begun watching Season 10 of the Biggest Loser, since it helps me as I work on losing my own weight.  Watching this show is fun and motivating. While I realize that losing that much weight in such a short time is unrealistic for someone living a normal life of work and commuting to work, it does help me. The Biggest Loser is great motivation, but I also read and listen to other resources that provide great information like the Nutrition Diva and Fat2Fit podcasts. Knowledge is POWER!!

I have yet to weigh myself for this week, but will soon. I doubt I've lost weight, although I did work out Monday (30 minutes on the elliptical). My left knee was giving me some pain recently, but I doubled my dose of mangosteen juice and it feels great now.

I wish you all a great day!  God bless.
Jeff

Success...but I still need to do better.

This is late since I planned to post my progress on Monday. While I've lost 2.8 lbs since last week, it has been a fairly disappointing week with little exercise and too much eating of bad food. I need to kick it into gear. On Monday, I ate within my calorie budget, but I ate crazy amounts of food yesterday (Tuesday). Today I'm eating OK and had some California Roll with brown rice for lunch. And apples... many apples.  Also, I went to the gym this morning...30 minutes on the elliptical, which felt great. Tomorrow I lift weights.

I currently weigh 322.8 and my goal for the next 30 days is to get below 310. Debbie and I are flying to Orlando in late October for a business trip and I really want to be a little smaller for the plane ride. As I lose weight, we wish to travel more.  FWF (flying while fat) sucks!

Please see my progress below.  I have 78 lbs to go before February.

Starting Weight: 344.8 lbs (February 17, 2010)
Goal Weight: 244.8 (by February 17, 2011)

Previous Weight: 325.6 lbs (September 13, 2010)
Current Weight: 322.8 lbs (September 22, 2010
Weight Loss for Week: 2.8 lbs (0.86%)

Total Weight Lost: 22 lbs (6.38%)

Weight I still need to lose: 78 lbs

Jeff

Why Windmills?

It occurred to me that people might be interested in the title of my blog...Tilting at Windmills. If you've read Don Quixote or viewed one of the many versions of the musical Man of La Mancha, you will likely recognize the phrase. Quixote fights windmills that he imagines are giants and the phrase often refers to fighting imaginary enemies or an unwinnable fight. I love the tale and I admire Quixote, because while he has his delusions, he truly believes he is a great knight fighting against evil and for the honor of his "love" Dulcinea. Considering the title of my blog, it might be tempting to think that I consider weight loss as an unwinnable fight.  Not at all. Actually, what I love about Don Quixote is how he never quits.  No matter what people say to him or what the world presents to him, he never gives up.

Picasso's Don Quixote

Recently, one of my uncles  remarked that being obese is more about what is between your ears than anything else. I agree with that completely.  If you're a fan of the Biggest Loser, you might know that the contestants that have been able to keep the weight off are the ones that confronted why they are fat. People don't become morbidly obese because they just like eating.  In most cases, there is an underlying reason. I believe culture and family history can play a part, but there is more to it than that. Confronting those internal demons and fighting the good fight are what enable fat people to lose weight and to keep the weight off.

While I will continue to work on losing weight by eating healthy foods and  exercising, I'm also going to spend some time on self-reflection. My life is stressful as I deal with many issues at work, home and with our business.  All of this makes losing weight difficult.  I've struggled this week and have had a hard time meeting my daily goals.  I think being more dedicated to my daily prayers will help.  And prayers from others are always appreciated.

Take care and God bless.

Jeff

One Fat Puppy

Two weeks ago I said I would start posting on my weight loss efforts. About this time, I was asked to work a proposal for my company and it spun my life out of control. This activity requires me to continue to support my customer during the day, while working a proposal in the late afternoon/evenings. I found that I would starve myself during the day and then eat huge amounts of fast food on the way home. And visits to the gym stopped. My future work with proposals is going to come with conditions.  I'm not going to let this kind of work negatively impact my health.

So, I'm still a fat puppy! And I will post a picture of me soon that shows
what I look now and then we can see what I look like when I meet my goal. I have no doubt that I will meet my goal. My only concern is being able to accomplish this by February 17th, 2011, which is my wife's birthday. As an added incentive, one of my sisters is a smoker and she promised to quit when I lost 100 pounds. 

Here is where I stand:

Starting Weight: 344.8 lbs (February 17, 2010)
Goal Weight: 244.8 (by February 17, 2011)

Current Weight: 325.6 lbs (September 13, 2010)
Weight Lost: 19.2 lbs (5.5%)

Weight I still need to lose: 80.8 lbs

I will post again soon. 


Jeff