Making Healthy .. The Key to Eating Tasty, Healthy Food

Since my last post was Breaking Bad... Habits, i thought I would go with a making healthy food topic.

Obviously this is a favorite subject of mine given I am a former chef. I love cooking and creating and learning new things and what better way to learn and create than when on a healthy lifestyle plan! Tabitha and I are currently trying to limit as much bad carbs and dairy as possible so getting creative with our meal planning is quite interesting so that we are not having the same 4 or 5 meals every week. There are lots of recipes out on the inter-webby-thing and I never really use recipes that are already published because I like the idea of creating my own twist and spin on things so I will find a recipe and use it as a general idea. I tweak the recipes I find  and change a few things until it is a new creation or I will just pick one of my faves and find alternatives to certain ingredients.

Case in point this last week I had heard my wife Tabitha say she was craving my special lasagna that I make so i decided to experiment. I nearly pulled off the perfect substitute too, it just took some outside the box thinking. I substituted Zucchini for lasagna sheets and found some decent soy "cheese" and off I went. I reduced the amount of homemade pasta sauce as I knew it would contribute to the excess moisture from the zucchini; unfortunately it did not quite work out 100% as it was still watery. I learned though, that next time I will grill the zucchini on the George Foreman grill first and heat up the tomato sauce so that when everything is all assembled I will only have to melt the "cheese" in the oven instead of baking for almost 1 hour and having a partial soup. I will say that it tasted wicked awesome! I made enough for 8 people and after using My Fitness Pal app I found out it came to around 445 calories per portion! 

I also make a tasty Mushroom chicken where I substitute whipping cream with canned coconut milk and it is hardly noticeable and tastes great and it is 485 calories per portion. There are just so many things you can try and develop on your own if you do a little research into viable options and you use a little ingenuity. I always say that when it comes to cooking and creating you are only limited by your imagination. Also what a great and fun way to learn and experiment and feel accomplished when you make a great meal that is tasty, satisfying and healthy for you!

If anyone is wanting some of my recipes on healthy eating let me know and I will start healthy recipe posts to this page.

Music Motivates the Movement

I was reading a post from someone who has an account I follow and she was looking for ideas for her Vlog; https://www.youtube.com/user/blueeyedbetty , understandably posting any blogs or vlogs can be tiresome as sometimes it feels I feel like I am beating a dead horse saying the same thing in different ways which is why lately my subject matter is a bit more of the smaller tips and thoughts that drive me and inspire me. So when I was responding to the post I mentioned maybe doing a Vlog on her music that pushes her through her workouts and I thought damn.. that is a great idea for me as well!

Music for many people helps improve focus and concentration when battling against time or boredom. Music also can affect our moods, it can comfort us when sad and it can energize us when we need to wake up. Music through the ages has been known to reach someone's soul or come from the soul, it can tell a story of life love and loss, music without words can speak to any one no matter their nationality and over come all language barriers. So music comes as no surprise that it is a big motivator when at the gym working out. 

For me when you find that right mix of songs and musical beat I come alive. My drive increases, I am not watching the clock so much and I truly enjoy my workouts more. For me as I consider myself more of an 80s child (though born in '73) I have always been big on good hard guitar style rock but when I look back at the musical choices for going to the gym they just don't fire me up enough for my workout. I find myself listening to a lot of Hard Rock music (though in the 80s I think a lot of it would be considered metal).

On my playlists I have a mix of of:

Five Finger Death Punch

Halestorm

Nothing More

A Perfect Circle

Disturbed

Shinedown

Pop Evil

Adelitas Way

Sixx AM

Bif Naked

Rage Against The Machine

Queen

Papa Roach

GodSmack

Faith No More

White Zombie / Rob Zombie

Danko Jones

Motley Crue

Limp Bizkit

Default

Dorothy

I am always creating and adding new playlists as I don't want the music to get stale with me and lose that energy that I have been getting so constantly creating is important to me. If you feel like your workouts are getting a bit stale and that your motivation when at the gym is dropping try making a new play list it will help do wonders!

Breaking Bad.. Habits

Good morning all!

Today I want to talk about habits; we all have them, some good some bad some irrelevant because they only make sense to us in our OCD ways. 

I definitely have mine, I have OCD when it comes to locks; I will lock something up then check 3 or 4 times to make sure it is locked (because I somehow think that maybe I unlocked it when checking to see if it is locked). 

Having habits is normal it is apart of who we are and how we operate. Habits are always easy to start up when they are conducive to our daily actions and can compliment or enhance our daily routine; however starting new habits can be difficult when they are counter-productive to what is apart of your usual routine.  An example would be going shopping for groceries, being in a habit of making a list makes getting groceries easier. Another example is stopping smoking, my mother recently quit after smoking for over 60 years, it has been very difficult for her overcoming old habits to start a new one as she would wake up have coffee and a cigarette or inbetween ends in curling she would go for a quick smoke etc. Smoking became natural for her to do between moments of doing things and now when those moments arise it is the most difficult. The actual quitting she was fine with, she got on the patch and had a couple days where she craved it but for her it has been more of the habit of what to do at certain moments of her day that she felt weakest at.

They say a habit forms from 21 days of continuous action to be instilled into your psyche as a habit. 21 days or 3 weeks does not seem like much at all but it is so easy to just blow off one day because you feel off or you feel that "one moment of messing up won't hurt me", but the fact is once you drop that one day your brain can reset to what your habit originally is.  

For me and many others trying to lose weight creating new habits feel nearly impossible. I can get to about day 6 or 7 then I feel absolutely drained mentally. I get lethargic and tired and just no energy to function so the next day when my alarm goes off to go to the gym I hit snooze a few times before I say screw it and turn it off and go back to sleep. The only thing I can try and do is keep pushing through until I hit that 21 days. I need to keep reminding myself why I am doing it, they payoff I will get from it and how much better I will feel. it is that damn sleep.. it just feels so good!  

I know a lot of the problem is I am just getting up so early to go to the gym, 3:15 to be at gym by 4am, but I just don't have the energy after work to go. The damn 80 minute drive home doesn't help at all as I just get too comfortable with sitting and my energy and intent dissipates throughout the long drive home. I do enjoy being at the gym once I am there especially that early as there is only a few people there at that time, and sometimes no one is there but me which is my favorite time. It also doesn't help when I get home and when I go to bed around 8/830 and am called an old man for going to bed so early. I know they are just teasing but it makes me apprehensive about not being apart of whatever it is they are doing so I force myself to stay up later to join in with what is going on, even if it is just  catching up on the PVR or playing a game. In my mind I am doing this stuff for me but when I am pitted with the choice of not pleasing someone I cave in.Which brings out another habit I have that is a blessing and a curse; my need to please everyone. 

By far the toughest habit to break is my wanting to please everyone all the time, which is why I need to change it to wanting to please myself at the very least. I need to realize that sometimes I must put my own needs first. I need to fully understand and believe that I need to be a priority in my life too. I need to do this for 21 days in a row in order to build on something for myself. My whole life and career I have spent in service for others in doing what I can to please them. It is apart of the hospitality industry I spent 26 years in, it is apart of who I am even before I started cooking. 

So this habit won't be easy to start and maintain for 21 days (including 1 rest day a week), but it is just apart of my journey to finding me. 

2017 The Year That Can Be,,,

I have decided to not be quite so forthcoming in my blog posts here with all of what is going on in my personal weightloss struggle world; but instead I want to focus more on creating a better mentality and personal dynamic more than the actual number on the scale or the efforts per week at the gym. I just dont want to be focusing too much on a number as I feel for me it becomes an overwhelming focus and the pressure to achieve the same weeks numbers or better get to me and failure to reach those numbers can set me off in a tailspin.

Currently I am being conscious of staying away from the scale. I know my starting point which was more than last January at the same time, my struggles from my accident this year was an influencing factor for certain but the mental aspect I believe was more deciding. I need to have a healthy mind which in turn will create a healthier process in achieving my goals. I have not decided yet if I will weigh myself on February 1st or March 1st (I am leaning to March 1st) to see my progress, I will let you know the results when I do.

I firmly believe weightloss is 80% mindset and 20% effort. So many times I know I have hit the snooze button when it is time to go for a workout, or told myself I would go to the gym later and then find another excuse not to. I believe this is something many of us obese people are doing, making excuses is what has gotten us into the health situation we are in. We talk ourselves out of it before we even begin and thus not giving ourselves a fair chance just to be successful.

I tell myself at 3:15am every morning when my alarm goes off "You will feel better after you're done." amd "You cant make excuses anymore, just get up and do it.". Now I know as I go back to being more in a routine and my habits start to build this conversation with myself will lesson and I will have the opposite effect when thinking of skipping, I know this because I was there before when I had lost the 160lbs the first time. Those days back when I ended up saying to myself "You can't skip today, you have been at it for 27 days straight!" or " You are 8 pounds away from ____! Don't you want those pounds gone?!" 

No matter which stage you are in you need to have the right mind set or you will sabotage yourself no matter what; it may not be today nor tomorrow but you will be setting yourself up for failure none the less. This can't be a casual commitment it has to be a long term relationship you have with yourself. Obviously going all or nothing can be dangerous as well. Going all gung-ho when you are not used to that life style as well is setting yourself up for failure. 

Commit yourself to minor changes, to make better more consistent decisions and then the mental work gets easier. Choose to start a new habit of excercise even if it is just 1 hr, choose to have a salad for lunch instead of a burger or sub, choose to only have a few drinks on Friday or Saturday not both, choose to walk up 3 flights of stairs instead of use the elevator every other day. Small little changes can surmount into an avalanche of change as long as you want to make the conscious decision to make that change within you.

Tidal waves, Polar Bears and accountability... what the New Year will bring..

It is just a few days before New Years and I am thinking of the restart I am working on. 

I had come so far only to lose my progress; I am trying not to let this struggle get to me, and for the most part on that I have been successfull. I fully understand that there will always be hills and valleys in this weightloss journey, and it is solely up to me to limit those valleys and hills. Controlling the ebb and flow of the tides that influencenses our day and how we react to those waves is an integral part of success.

For so long I have fought against the tide, struggled to stay above water, struggled to survive the storms, fighting to prevent the waves at all and now I think I am finally realizing that I can't fight the tide, I can't change what can not be changed, I can only change how I react to it. No matter the ups or downs I have I must just simply carry on and adjust to it, I am truly trying to let go of the angst and anxiety I have with my weight; trying to stay focused on the long term goal opposed to what is happening in the present moment. It is hard though as we as a society want immediate knowledge and gratification; we want instant results to justify and reinforce our actions.

With this in mind I believe I have to re-do my goals. I am starting from scratch again and my goals have to reflect that despite what I accomplished this year because I have had such a set back, because I was on Injured Reserve for nearly 8 months.

1. Polar bear swim .. again (2nd year in a row)
2. Choose Better - Be more conscious of meal choices
3. Be more Active - by working out a minimum 5 times a week
4. Get moving - Averaging over 60,000 steps a week
5. Celebrate my victories - recognize achievements that I have reached and reward myself accorfdingly for the work I have put into achieving it.
6. Do more things that make me uncomfortable/insecure of.
7. Lose 50 pounds
8. Lose 100 pounds
9. Lose 150 pounds
10. Lose 200 pounds
11. Reach goal weight of 180 pounds
12. Be able to buy clothes at a normal store not a big and tall store.
13. Not need a sleep Apnea machine
14. Join a fun league sports team for each season of the year
15. Take up running then do a Disney Marathon (and/or 1/2 marathon) with my wife
16. Take a fitness class such as kick boxing or MMA type class
17. Log my Progress - work on a photo journey of my progress (every month wearing the same shirt that does not fit until it does.)
18. Consistency - increase my exercise weight training weights until I reach my preset goals (have yet to determine these goals but will post them when I have a realistic goal in mind with help of my trainer.)
19. Accountability - log my food and exercise on a consistent daily basis (minimum 5 days a week)
20. Re-read / re-do Life Strategies book - to rebuild my thinking processes to help me succeed.
21. Be a better friend to myself - be as supportive and positive thinking to myself as I am to my friends and family
22. Have more successes than failures this year in my weightloss goals (cross off 12 different items from this list by years end - not including this goal)

So these goals are soley based on my journey to be healthy as I do have a few more that I would like to achieve. I know that some of these goals are extremely tough to reach in one years time however they are not meant to be strictly one years worth of goals but more of a long term goal which is why number 22 is to cross off more than half of these items from the list. I will do a review of this list come June 1st to see where my progress is and see if I am on course to achieving what I am setting out to do.