The Heart of the Matter - Lose to Win!

My road back to health and fitness is a personal journey filled with many steps and bites taken each day.  It took many years for my health to be damaged and will take many more for that to be completely undone.  However, I have experienced what many would call an amazing transformation in just six months.  My challenges were certainly not the same degree that some people will face.  But have no doubt, I struggled daily with choosing to eat healthy, exercise and stop making excuses!  It's all in your mindset.  Sure I made some mistakes along the way too.  I hope you can learn from my personal experience and take away from it what you need to succeed in your own personal journey. 

 Every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise.  - Ayn Rand

I am often asked now, “What did you do to lose weight and improve your health?”  There are several factors that can be identified in the success of people who lose weight.  But first, by identifying the things that led to my packing on the weight, I can offer some tips for a weight loss plan that will work when you decide and commit to doing them, as it has done for me. 

I love food!  Before I began my weight loss routine, I would eat more or less whatever I desired.  I could stuff myself to the point where shortly afterward I would hurt.  I would eat and drink whatever I could get my hands on.  I had no idea how many calories I was consuming.   I also had no idea what my body needed calorie wise.  I liked to stay up late, snacking on a huge bowl of mixed nuts, chips and other junk food in one hand and a drink in the other.  There were days where I was so tired upon waking up that I would snooze in bed till the very last minute, with just enough time to spare to get to work on time.  That meant that many breakfasts were skipped.  For lunch and dinner there was rarely a time where I wouldn’t fill up on meat with very little vegetables on the plate.  Fruit was not part of my regular diet.  My diet consisted of very little fish and other lean proteins.  I love bread and would daily down a peanut butter and honey sandwich on white bread.  I ate lots of white flour foods, pasta, a ton of white rice and many other processed and canned foods.  My meals were spontaneous.  I’d come home, look in the fridge to see what was there and grab whatever I could to fill my stomach.  At work, lunch often consisted of KFC, A&W and other fast foods including the fries and pop!  I loved to drink slurpee’s, down energy drinks, knock back a few beers daily and the list of high calorie beverages goes on and on.  Water was not high on my list of things to drink.  I rarely exercised.  Sure I’d go to the swimming pool now and then or go for a walk from time to time.  I cut the lawn when it had to be done and shoveled the sidewalks in the winter.  But generally, my time was spent on the couch watching television, on the computer playing games and more or less being a slouch on my butt.  So imagine that’s your kind of lifestyle and what years of these bad habits will do to your health.  My before pictures are evidence of what happened. 

So now that I’ve identified the actions that damaged my health, let’s take a look at a plan that works to heal yourself through proper nutrition and exercise.  This plan is called Decide, Commit, Succeed!  IT IS HARD WORK!  Do not underestimate how tough it’s going to be and how committed you’ll need to be to get the results you want.  Amazing effort brings amazing results when you make a promise to yourself and follow through with your plan!

Figure out where you are.  How many calories does your body need and how many to burn off.  Besides the kinds of food you eat, you need to burn more than you take in to lose weight.  There are some free food journaling websites that you can use to track what you eat.  Do it!  You won’t know where you need to be until you know where you currently are.  One of the most important meals of the day is breakfast.  Don’t skip it!  Matter of fact, besides three small portion meals each day, I recommend two or three snacks throughout the day between meals.  Your diet must include fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, including fish, white poultry and legumes. Toss the white bread and all other white foods in the trash!  There’s zero nutrition in them and the refined simple carbohydrates play havoc with your blood sugar levels and pack on fat.  Instead, eat whole grains in all their varieties.  Don’t wing it!  Spontaneity is good in the bedroom, but for meals it’s best to plan ahead.  Write down what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to exercise.  What you drink is critical.  Soda pop, alcohol, energy drinks, etc contain empty calories, meaning no nutrition.  So eliminate these and eat the nutritional calories your body needs.  Drink plenty of water.  Nutritional food is 80 percent of the formula for success in your weight loss plan.  The other 20 percent is vigorous exercise 5 to 6 times a week!  Make sure you plan for it and make it a priority.  It’s an investment in your health, so don’t let anything distract from you committing to this daily regimen.  Schedule yourself an appointment on your calender!

You don’t need a gym or club membership.  You don’t need to be a star on a television show.  All you need to succeed is listed in the simple weight loss tips above that worked for me and have worked for thousands upon thousands of people who decided to take control of their health and stop making excuses.  Don't reinvent the wheel.  No fancy gadgets.  No gimmicks.  Just good old fashioned eat healthy and exercise.  Just show up and keep pushing play! It’s your choice! 

I hope that by reading through my blog archive that you'll be truly inspired and feel motivated to get off your butt.  I’d be happy to read what you have to say about my blog posts and answer any questions you may have. Let me know how you're progressing in your own personal journey.  We strengthen each other in the sharing of our stories, and I'd enjoy hearing from you.  So tell me what's worked for you, what hasn't, what you're challenges are, what your successes are and more. 

It's never too late to start changing bad habits, habits that can shave years off your life and impact the quality of your life. So, if you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me. I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts. I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes. So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started! 

Why Don't You Drink Milk?

When friends ask, "why don't you drink milk?" I am now confident that what I am eliminating from my daily diet is the best for my overall health and fitness.  I base this on my own experience and study of the topic.

I believe that cow's milk is mother nature's perfect food for a calf or breast milk for a human child, until it's weaned.  Calcium and protein?  Where do cows and other animals get calcium for their bones and protein for their muscles?  From plants!  Enough said.  There are however some healthy dairy choices and nondairy foods I'd recommend.  I use 1-2 daily servings (1 servings=8 ounces or 1 cup) of the following:

Organic low fat Greek yogurt
Goat milk or goat cheese
Almond Milk
Coconut Milk
Rice Milk
Soy Milk
Soy-based cheeses and yogurt
Kefir (fermented dairy products)

We simply don't need to consume dairy milk to be healthy.  Reducing your intake of dairy will cut back on your levels of unhealthy saturated fat and lower cholesterol.

Got Milk?  The dairy industry is...well, it's an industry...a business, and they can market whatever they want.  But if you're like a questioning consumer that I have become and carefully scrutinize what I fuel my body with, then you might ask yourself some questions about why humans are the only animal species that drink milk and continue to after being weaned.  I found the following article in the McDougall Newsletter to provide some solid  information with factual references on the topic.   Dairy foods are simply high in calories, high in fat and cholesterol and contribute to disease and illness.

In the months that I've eliminated dairy milk from my diet, I have also eliminated my cravings for dairy.  I have eliminated congestion from my body.  I feel great being off dairy milk.  It has not been an hindrance, but an advantage to my health and wellness.  Like Dr. John McDougall, I can find no reason to add dairy into my diet.  Tony Horton, the creator of P90X suggests try eliminating dairy milk from your diet for 30 days and see how it makes you feel.  Then add it back in and see what difference you feel.  Take the 30 day Food Challenge! 

If you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me.  I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts.  I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes.  So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!

Sweat This!

At the conclusion of my Kenpo X workout Wednesday evening I was totally amazed at the level of intensity that I had achieved for the duration of 1 hour with an average heart rate of 146 beats per minute and a high of 160! I wear a heart rate monitor. Ya baby, I was in the zone! The result of that insanity was I was literally dripping from head to toe as though I had just stepped out of the shower. It felt great knowing that I was working hard to improve my cardiovascular health. The training exercises are a bullet proof way to fire up your metabolism, which is what I'd like to blog about today.



Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns up calories just to keep you alive. The body functions such as your heart rate, your lungs breathing, your blood coursing through your veins, your mind thinking and dreaming, everything your body does is burning calories all the time. The more you work your muscles, the higher the calorie burn and the resulting increase in your metabolism.

Before I began to be concerned about my health, I spent most of my time on my butt and eating a LOT of junk! To think that every moment I spend sitting down at my desk, on the couch watching TV, at the computer is time spent growing fat! Every single moment I have spent over the past 4 and half months has been on my feet helping me to get trim! If you want your bottom line to grow, literally, do nothing. Changing the way I think about my health and the foods that I eat, and changing how much I move my body everyday are two of the components that have helped me to succeed in building a body that's now a fat-burning machine.

Dieting is not about following a so-called quick fix diet and then go back to the same way of eating. You need to eat plenty of food. Starvation only works to boost fat gains and lose precious metabolic burning muscles! Eating nutrient rich foods in a balanced diet will help you to retain and build muscle while burning fat, and you'll have more energy, better health and a happier outlook on life. Just the simple act of eating smaller meals more often (5-6 times a day) helps you to burn more calories. Not only that, but the very types of food you put in your mouth will also have a direct effect. Lean proteins simply burn more calories while at the same time dulling your hunger.

Exercise and moving your body are critical to building up your metabolism and burning calories. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, find a way to be more active in your daily activities, such as walking and taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from the store to walk further, standing while waiting instead of sitting at the doctors/dentist office, carrying your own golf clubs instead of using a cart, bike instead of drive, have more sex, and the list goes on. The gym is not the only place to make your body move. All of the 12 exercise routines I have done with Beachbody product P90X created by Tony Horton have been at home in my living room. The resistance training using weights and my own body weight have helped to strengthen my muscles, which in turn burn more calories and raise my metabolism. The proof is in the sweat and the amazing transformation of my body!

I used to come home after work, often at night, and so hungry ready to devour a big meal just an hour or two before sleep. The key to avoiding this pitfall is to eat often during the day and fuel up on whole foods that truly beat the hunger and fatigue. There is no magic genie or miracle pill. Eating a smart, balanced diet with the right kinds of protein, carbs, fats that are rich in nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fewer bad foods like refined or artificial sugars and sweetners, trans-fats and too much salt, are your first line of defense against health problems. With proper diet you can eliminate and control such enemies as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar. You too can become a nutritional superhero and boost your metabolism all day!  I now eat like a superhero and get the best bang for my calories.  I think I'm eating more than I ever did before and rarely feel hungry.  It's not about eating less, it's about getting more out of the food you do eat and being in the best shape of your life.

If you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me.  I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts.  I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes.  So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!