Moving means losing weight right?...

Moving

     So we moved out of the place we were staying and moved into a place of our own.  Very nice house, and lots of stuff that had to be moved.  I was excited for more than one reason.  First reason, finally get to have my family living in a house of our own again after 15 long months (thanks to those who put up with us haha).  Second reason was, moving all this stuff and all the exercise I was about to partake in, I was bound to lose some weight.

     Well, what I didn't take into account was the fact that eating was going to be a little difficult.  Dominoes here, Jack in the Box there, and my full time work diet that I talked about last night, really did a number.  I haven't really gained, but all of that extra work I did with moving seems to be the only thing that has kept me where I am.  That and those almost daily walks.  

     We are all human and bound to make mistakes.  I need to learn to control myself again and get on a routine so that I can better monitor what I eat.  Not only do I need to go back to monitoring what I eat, but I really need to start my strength workouts again.  I have my gym, it's time to cut my crap and start hitting it hard! 

My heart

One thing I've noticed...

     These past few weeks there has been one change I have noticed while losing weight.  This change has been settle but non the less, has occurred.  It is the most exciting thing that has occurred during my diet.  It's not the weight I've loss, the energy I've gained, or the muscles that have been built.  It has to do with my heart.

     I have always had trouble with my heart.  From not allowing me to do sports, to the palpitations I would often get, and even the weird feelings I would get and would stop my life for a few minutes until it felt back to normal.  It has been a struggle and one that I at times was not willing to battle out.  Now that I am losing a lot of weight, I have notice the best change out of everything!

     No longer do I seem to have the palpitations.  I feel like a new man.  My heart does not act up getting out of the shower like it often did for some reason.  No longer does it bog me down when going for walks, or exercising.  This has been my greatest accomplishment to date.  I feel like a new person and have at times even felt like jogging.  Sure it's only a few feet, but I have never had that feeling before in my life and it is a new experience.    

     The question that has started up in my mind is how far do I push it?  I have had my ICD go off on four different occasions on me, and that is not a feeling I wish to have happen again.  But yet there is this yearning inside of me to jog, to play basketball again, or even just to power-walk for a few minutes. 

      So for now I sit here wondering what would happen if I Did try these?  I have a watch that monitors my heart, but would that be enough?  I guess I just keep on at what I'm doing and wait and see, but yet those desires to do the things I haven't been able to in years pull at my heart.  We'll see what happens, for now, one more step at a time.

I'm on a see-saw!!!!!!!

The see-saw effect

     201... 205... 203... 206... 202... but at least it has not gone to 210, then again it isn't 200 either.  It can become pretty annoying when your weight keeps alternating like the numbers above.  This is something I have been experiencing the past week or so.  It can be tiring, but I know in the end all of this is one big learning experience.

     What I take from this journey is knowing that in the road of life there are always speed bumps.  Nothing is going to go as planned.  So as one of my favorite songs go, I need to put my shoulder to the wheel.  Weight loss has been an amazing experience.  Where would I be if I would have given up the first time I didn't meet my goal?  Or stopped when I gained instead of lost?  

     I know that I will meet my goal very soon of dropping under 200 pounds.  I know that it is going to keep on taking hard work and determination.  I also know that my objective of weighing 170 will be reached as well.  These things take time and effort and I'm ok with the bumps in the road.

     For now, however, I'm going to keep on this see-saw for as long as I need to until I break through the barriers that are in front of me and destroy my goal.  What I take and learn from here will only strengthen me and prepare me for my next objectives.  One step at a time!  

This mornings workout

Just a little insight to my workout this morning.  I can tell you my arms are burning right now!

For starters I warm up with a mixture of stretching and Yoga.  This allows my muscles to get warmed up and get me in the right frame of mind.  Oh and a little bit of Lead Me by Sanctus Real always helps me get going as well.




To start I used a resistance band, two 4 pound weights, and my 8 pound medicine ball. 

My first workout was a chest press using the resistance band, 2 sets of 15.
Second went into doing a seated row with the band, again 2 sets of 15.
From there I did arm curls using the band, 2 sets of 15.
Then switched to Lateral rises using the band, 2 sets of 10 (shoulders fatigued too quick for 15 haha).

Just to let you know I alternate between these.  For example I will do the chest press, move to the row, back to the chest press and then do the second row.

From here I switched it up to the dumbbells.  I did 2 reps of 15 of the squatting arm curls, bracing my back against the wall.
Then I went to triceps extensions, again 2 reps of 15.

I did then some knee bent triceps dips, 2 reps of 10 and medicine ball aided pushups.

Lastly I did with the medicine ball something called clockwork.  Starting by holding the ball at a 12 o'clock position, with locked elbows I went clockwise going from 12 to 12, and then reversed it back counterclockwise, one of those is a rep and man do those burn.

Then it was chow time!  Loaded up on some carbs and protein with some ground turkey fried up in onions and topped it on some brown rice. 

Just another day in the office. It might be a little time consuming and painful but I am seeing the results in my arms, so it's worth it.

Why did I not exercise?

Am I really that busy???

     My biggest excuse for not exercising or even going for a walk was, "  Well, I worked today and I'm really busy so I'm just going to sit here in front of my computer and relax."   Which would lead to," Hmm now I am bored... I need something to eat."   This was a vicious cycle.  Instead of working out and getting fit, I was stagnant and eating.  How does that work?!?

     Now, yes, I am still in front of the computer.  However, I also have Sparkpeople open on the web browser and in between typing paragraphs I am stopping to do my strength exercises.   I have found that it is not enough to just diet.  I need to exercise and exercise often.  I found out that every time I told myself I was too busy, in actuality I had at least 20 minutes to become healthier.  Just another example of the crap I had to cut out of my life- the excuses.  

     No longer do I let the excuses control my life.  How many times was I going to deny the healthy person inside of me the freedom it so called for?  We all have our personal demons.  I sat there and looked at my life.  Do you know how often I gave in to the temptation of just doing nothing?  Too often.  I was letting my life slip away from me because of my lack of time management skills and lack of motivation.   How in the world could I have such a lack of motivation?  

     Instead I was pulling the plug on my life.  I prayed for God to get me healthy.  He would only give me the tools, but I was the one not using them.  He gave me so much to motivate me; a wonderful wife, a heart defect, and most of all, my children.  Does a person need more motivation than that?  

     It is never too late to start and so I have.  I try to exercise 6 days a week now.  I do at least 3 days of cardio and 3 days of strength training.  Sometimes I do more than just 3 days of cardio.  With that, I try to do at least 3 days of Yoga.  I have never felt better and the weight keeps slipping off my bones.  I cut the crap and stopped giving myself excuses.  I took the bull by the horns and now I'm in control.  God bless.

Look at what is truly important

Be blessed

Exercise is extremely important.

     

I broke myself down and started over...

I found myself...

     Once I peeled my onion away and looked at what there was, I was amazed at what I had let myself become.  For once in my lifetime, I eliminated everything I had been told about myself and how society told me I should view myself.  I was tired of all of the negativity and how it affected not just me, but also my family.  No longer did I want to allow what the media wanted, but instead what was needed for me, my relationship with God, and my family.  So once I peeled away everything and broke myself down now it was time to find myself and see just what type of a person I was and could be.  

    First thing was first, I had to look at myself and tell myself just how I truly felt about me.  I eliminated all of the negative and began a new foundation by realizing that I am a good looking guy.  We are all good looking people, we read in the scriptures that our bodies are a temple.  How dare I say that God's temple was not a beautiful thing.  How dare I question His creation because of what the "media" said I should be.  I needed to realize that it is not about what they think, it is about what God has create and what I think, and my wife with her words helped that situation as well.  We are all temples of God and with that said, God does not create ugly temples.  If you let society tell you different, you are falling prey to them and it is time to cut out that crap from your life.  

    I started to realize that yes I am one of God's great creations.  So with that said, why should I keep up with my body and my weight.  Then I realized that indeed this was too important.  Going back to the idea that your body is a temple I started to ask myself why am I putting so much crap into it?  It's bad enough I looked down upon it with my society influence outlook on what I should be, but I am also not taking care of my body!  I am cruising through life and not doing anything to make my body healthy and strong.  

      So I decided it was time, it was time to treat God's temple with the respect and honor it should be treated with.  This meant that yes, I would have to stop eating the way I ate, stop putting chemically altered crap into my body.  Sure, it tasted good.  Sure, it took care of those cravings I had for food.  But what did it do to my body?  IT destroyed my body!  It took away my health and made me an obese man who already had enough health problems to deal with.  I have a heart that won't let me run.  It wont let me be the person I had dreamed of being.  But this, I had to find out the hard way, is not about me.  The body and condition I have been given was a great blessing by the Lord.  This was me starting to lay down my new foundation, on the foundation of the Lord and the realization that he gave me this body knowing, knowing that I could take the ball and run with it.

     It was never in his plans to have me be some athlete or a mountain climber, or anything that takes a strong heart.  I needed to change my life and explore my deep down inner self to realize God knew what he was doing when he gave me the health conditions he gave me.  My foundation was finally laid.  I knew at that point what I had to do.  I knew that I could trust in the Lord, in his temple, in his creation that he knew what he was doing.  It has taken me 27 years to come to terms of my health.  It has taken me 3 months to change my life.  In 3 months I have laid down a new foundation.  That foundation is attacked daily but it holds strong.  


    I finally see me for me, not for what holds me back, but for what I have been given.  No longer am I going to allow society to influence my decisions.  I'm not going to let them determine how I feel about my body and I'm eliminating all of the negative words I use to think about myself.  I'm building back up my foundation, brick by brick, using the foundation of God and Jesus Christ.  My foundation laid, my bricks are going into place, it's a new life now.  I have taken control of my eating, I monitor almost daily what and how much I eat to know that my body is getting what it needs, not what I want.  I'm done with junk food, I don't need it.  I have eliminated most sugar (I don't eat anything with more than 10g of sugar in it).  Since I have decided to rebuild the temple that God has given me I have lost over 35 pounds, I sit right now at 210.  It is doable, this to me has not just been about weight loss anymore but a new lease and purpose on life.  I love my life now and all the blessings that I have.


Count your blessings
Remember you are one of God's temples
As we read in 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

The choices we make about the use of our personal temples will affect us throughout all eternity.

The story behind Cut The Crap

Why name it Cut The Crap?

     So the question becomes why would I pick a name that is so harsh?  It just seems a little mean doesn't it?  I mean sure I could have picked other titles like, my life story, how to cut the fat, becoming a better person one step at a time, etc etc etc.  The fact of the matter is, it is not easy.  For a majority of the people who read this it is going to take that smash-mouth, in your face, type of thought provoking influence. We have all had many opportunities to try to lose the weight, we have had many different diets and many different... "I can do this" thoughts but each time they have failed us.  So that is why it is time to get straight to the point and just admit... we need to cut the crap out of our life and it starts right here.

     Through prayer and realization, I have come to the conclusion that it was going to take some deep personal reflection to truly understand myself and what I need to do to become a better person.  Not just for myself, but also for my family.  I'm jumping ahead of myself however because, before our family, before our spouses, before our parents, but of course after God, we need to look in that mirror, we need to get comfortable with ourselves and see what truly is there.  First and foremost, with again the exception of God, this is for us!  This needs to be for you!  You must learn to love yourself and see what truly exists.  Inside each and every one of us there is a soul, there is a desire, a fire that burns deep down in the gully of your stomach, it's time to take a torch and light that puppy up!  

     I can't tell you exactly how to do this, but remember the title of this blog, it's time to cut the crap.  Stop lying to yourself!  You need to look into that mirror and be honest with yourself.  Quit lying, quit trying to shake everything off your shoulders and pretending that it does not affect you because we both know it does.  The first step to getting better is to stop lying to yourself and open up your soul to a discussion of fact and fiction.  This is your new beginning, your awakening to say the least.  

     This does not just have to be about weight loss but anything that is bothering you.  Let's now all take that first step, find a mirror, go into a bedroom and be by yourself, or just meditate, but get this one on one time you need.  Now that you are by yourself it's time to cut the crap.  Let it all out!  Do not hold back and if you have to break yourself down (this was my first step).  This is how I decided it was time to change my life, I let myself have it.  Now, the next step is to build yourself back up.  Tomorrow we will lay down that first brick and begin your new foundation the way I did.  It's time to learn to love ourselves, once we can love ourselves anything is possible!