What I have learned from my journey to health and fitness.

As I was doing my morning walk this morning I was thinking about what I have learned over the last 32 months of my journey to better health and fitness. I know what I am about to say is going to rub some of you the wrong way, but I hope it will make you do some thinking about your own journey.

When I started my journey I was like everyone else I was looking at the finish line that golden weight goal and also the golden rule of the BMI numbers. But I have come to understand that they are just that numbers, and now I use them as reference and nothing else. What is most important and what is my goal now is the bottom line:

·         Are my lab results all in the healthy range for me and my age? (This is the most important of all)

·         Am I eating a balanced diet? (The most important thing here is it a diet that is suited for me, and the way to know that is with your lab results and your blood pressure, and your physical health)

·         Am I exercising enough to keep myself healthy and fit? (The key here is am I doing the exercise that is best suited for me at my age and my capability)

·         Am I able to keep a stable weight? (This means that my weight is stable and I am not fluctuating, more than what is normal from day to day)

·         Am I keeping my blood pressure within a safe range that keeps me healthy?

·         Am I able to handle the stress in my life? (I have found that as long as I exercise most days of the week, I eat correctly, and I get enough sleep nightly; that my stress is well under control.

·         Am I socializing with friends and family as much as I should? (This is very important for overall health, fitness, and mental health)

If you eat a healthy balanced diet and you keep your intake at the correct level for you and you exercise your body will seek and level out at a weight that is correct for your body make up.  Will this level be your goal weight or within the BMI chart range? (Who Knows?) I have come to realize that I do not need to worry about that, all I need to know I is answered by a yes of the seven questions above.   As my doctor even said the BMI calculation is just a reference and it is incorrect for more people that it is correct for. Also we have some engraved ideas in our head of what we should really weight and at least for me it was close to what I am weighing now. The rule that I was given by one of my first doctors was, if you were healthy and fit at 21 and 22 years old that is a fairly good reference point of what your weight should be. As we age we lose muscle and that muscle is normally replaced with fat cells. So we need to stay active and move a lot and it is a good idea to do some weight training exercises. I do not wish to be some hulk but adding muscle does mean that you burn fat easier and that you have more strength and better fitness.

So what I have learned is simple and complicated at the same time:  Eat a balanced diet that your body needs, control your portions, exercise most days of the week, give yourself time to recover from the exercises, know your numbers of your lab results, know and monitor your blood pressure, socialize with friend and family, sleep at least 7 hours a night, and keep your life as free of stress as is possible.

The Newest member of our Family

This is Dusty Caroline the newest member of the our family. She is 5 weeks old now and is a Min Pin.

She will be coming to us from South Carolina.

Life is good and getting better.

Two weeks ago today was the last time I took my blood pressure (water pill) medication. My blood pressure has stayed very good, and I had days early on that I just wanted the damn pill. But now I am doing great and I have lost the need for the pill I believe. My weight is still higher that I would like and I believe it is causing me a little joint pain, but I will lose that and get back down to or very close to what I need to weigh.  I am finding that I have to watch the amount of salt I take in much closer, but that is good too. And the morning walks are very important now to keep my blood pressure lowered.

I believe I can now say that all of my original goals that I sat out to reach have been met, I did not set a weight goal I had set my goal of getting off the medications.

Live is good and getting better.

The Reasons to lose weight

We are all in this together and we all have goals either to lose weight or to maintain what we have lost. We all have different ways to getting to our goals. And most if not all of us have tried different diets before and lost weight just to regain that much and more than likely gained even more.

We all have our different reason why we want to lose the weight, hopefully the reason comes down to being fit and healthy. Losing weight just to fit into a swimming suit or a wedding dress is not the best of reasons and I say this because once summer is over or the wedding is over the weight will come back and then some. The only real way to lose the weight and to keep it off is to first want to lose the weight because we are ready for a lifestyle change. We are ready to stop the YO YO weight dance. We want to empty our closets of all the different sizes of cloths, and only have to worry about color matches. And along the way we have hopefully learnt that eating the foods that are healthy and good for us is really great tasting too.  I have gotten to the point that I can tell if something has too much salt just by taking the first bit.  Also when something is too greasy it really turns me off. I have also gotten to the point that if I do not get up and move around a lot and get my walks in even if it is a short 5 min walk I get very nervous, I just cannot sat still very long anymore.

What was your main reason for wanting to take this journey, mine was to get off all of my medications, which I have just now managed to do so.  My new goals are now to lose the weight gained from stopping my water pill, and to maybe lose the last small amount of weight that my doctor would like me to lose. Then my goal will turn to keeping off the medications, and keeping the weight off. And along the way I will set step, or distance goals for walking or bike riding. But most of all my goals all boil down to the fact that I want to be healthy and fit for my family, friends, and most of all for myself.

I would love to hear about your reason for wanting to take this Journey.

Being mindful about the things you do and say is so important.

Example: I was up a whole pound this morning and due to keeping track of what I ate, and really thinking back on why I ate it I realized why I am up this morning I now know that it will pass as my body has time to eliminate the extra salt that I have had now only yesterday but this week.  Mindfulness is about the here and now, but it is also about being responsible for your actions all of the time. The old saying goes every action as a result that has to be accepted and paid for some time in the future. 

The action of eating correctly pays off with being healthier. The action of getting up and moving, be it walking, running, biking or any other exercise will pay off by be fitter.

Will this happen overnight? NO.

 Will there be in discomfort from the actions? More than likely Yes.

 Will it pay off in the long run? You bet it will.

Being mindful about everything you do be it eating, breathing, exercising, being with your loved ones, and just being within yourself is very important. Being mindful is the art of the here and now, it is the art of putting everything out of you mind but what you are doing at the moment.  Give it a try, learn how to do it, it will free your mind and soul and give you so much less stress that you will now want to live any other way.

This years bicycle ride plan

In 2011 my longest bike ride was 16 miles; in 2012 my longest was almost 40 miles. This year I am shooting for 62 miles as my longest but would love for it to be 75 or 100 miles. What holds me back really and truthfully I do. I can never seem to make the time I need to work at this. But it is early in the year and I have already done two 17 mile rides back to back without wanting to just quit. So I know I am getting stronger. I just have to be careful and not push so hard that I get hurt. 
The Round Rock Outlaw ride is this October 12th I hope to do at least 62 miles and if possible to go for the whole banana and do the 100. I know I said that last year and did not make but 40 miles. Let’s just see how far I really can go this year.

We all make mistakes.

I keep going back at what I let happen to myself over the past holidays and I do not like what happened. I had battled with trying to get off the blood pressure meds all summer and my weight just went up then back down if I started taking my water pill again. The first of November I was down to 197 and was feeling great, then what did I do I lot go and started eating a little sweets here and there and by the first of the year I was up to 202, and I also decided to try again at getting off my water pill and gained even a little more due to the stress of my wife’s illness. But I shows that the day my wife had the surgery I started back on the water pill and started eating correctly again and my weight has come back down to 197 and I have even had a day or two where it has dropped as low as 194.

Hopefully I have regained my control and I will not let this happen again. I know this holiday season I will look back at what happened this last year and I will do my best not to let it happen again. We all make mistakes but we only learn from them if we analyze the mistakes and we do our very best to not make them again.