So not really progress. In the last 2 weeks I have gained 2 pounds and my BMI went up by 2%. Not exactly the number progress I was working for. Now if I go for appearance some parts of me have thinned out some and my arms and legs have a lot more muscle. I also learned how to use one of the workout equipment pieces I was unsure of this weekend which add a few more weight exercises to my routine. Its not all about the numbers. Still going and working hard.
Hello readers. With the New Year came some new changes. The Year of the Grinning Tiger has taken me to a new job and a new country. I have just this week moved to Mumbai, India. What does this mean?
Well what it means is I will be still trying to live a healthy and clean life. I am going to be doing my best to eat Paleo/Primal. However it also means I will be using this space to document more than just my health changes. That was the focus of last year and this was a great space for it and it will continue to be but changes will be coming. So in addition to me writing about my health I will be documenting my life here in India as a expat.
Expect the content here to be a bit inconsistent at first as I work out my schedule and life. You may see a flurry of posts and then a lack of them. In all honesty that is pretty consistent with how I have been posting here so yiu are probably used to it if you are reading this.
Its a New Year and it has ben a while since I posted. This year the blog will see a slight shift. I will still be posting about my health and fitness but I will also be posting about my life a little more too.
A tradition of mine is to name my year. Last Year was that Her of the Golden Butterfly, I didn’t really know what I was going to get out of my year but I knew it would be grand. It was definitely a change for me. A transformation. I lost 60lbs. I learned better life skills and ways to take care of myself. I found happiness. I smiled more. I proved I could do things I never tried before.
2014 will be the Year of the Grinning Tiger, A year inspired by strength and happiness. I will seek strength in a great many forms and happiness as well. So far this year I have maintained my weight of 220 but I am determined to drop that. I will be doing more strength training. I will be adapting my diet a little. Staying close to Paleo but perhaps more primal. There are still a grate many things I am glad I have removed from my life and will continue. However I realize that I understand my body and diet better over the last year and know when I can indulge a little in something’s but in moderation.
So keep an eye out for more updates and changes. Thanks for reading,
Today I hit one of my big goals for myself. I weighed in this morning at 233lbs and my BMI worked out to be less than 30 putting me no longer in the obese category but in the overweight bracket. So I am no longer obese, I’m just fat. I have a long ways to go to not being fat but it is great to get myself out of that extremely unhealthy level of obese which I have been in since I was a kid. Seriously, I am pretty sure I have been obese since I was 12. So it only took 23 years to get here but it feels good.
My next goal is weight based and I am targeting my birthday. When I hit it I will announce it but I like making my goals more private until I make them and then celebrate them.
This week is Dragon Con and I will be there from Wednesday till Tuesday. I was good about not killing my diet and weight last weekend when I was in Atlanta so I think I can make it through this weekend and not tank out my recent accomplishments. Even if I do I know I can readjust and get back to where I am no problem.
So life has been good. Today I earned my 15lbs lost badge on Fitbit. This based on from having my Aria scale for about a month now so the amount lost is from my highest weight I hit while having it 153 and I am now 137. Which is great and an all time low for my adult life. I keep repeating this because seriously I have been obese all of my adult life. That is kind of crazy to think about but it is true. The reality is I was obese all of my teenage years and a good portion of my youth. So now at 35 I am making the right changes to make that not the case. I am well on target for a personal goal I want to achieve before the end of this month. Then I have another for my birthday in November.
I was gaining weight or really maintaining weight and not really understanding why. I was doing lots of stairs, doing my 10k of steps and 5 miles a day. I thought I was tracking my calories correctly (no reason to lie to myself about what I was eating). I cut out fruit, I briefly cut out my Chai Lattes and still just standing still or losing then gaining.
So I looked at my intake and realized I was missing some important information. Liquid Calories that were not being recorded. I drink a lot of water but I also drink Almond milk because it is way tastier than water. I was drinking a lot of it. Since it is 80 Calories a cup and I was pounding down more and more a day I was not tracking it well enough to realize I was blowing through extra calories. So I cut out the Almond milk, increased my water, had a chai or two and looked at my portions as a whole and BAM back to a steady weight decrease.
For food I have cut down my breakfast portions slightly. I was doing 2 eggs and 3-4 pieces of bacon for breakfast and then a bunch of fruit for a snack in the morning. I now moved to one egg, 2 pieces of bacon and a banana for breakfast. No more fruit. Lunch is still baby spinach salad and I add raw mushrooms and some grilled chicken strips. Dinner this week has been a small pork chop and some Brussels sprouts and carrots. Keeping the portions reasonable and recorded. I might now be over estimating my calories vs before where I was underestimating but that is ok.
I still try to do 9 flights a stairs at a time but if not I at least do bursts of 4-5 at a time. I am averaging about 40-50 flights of stairs a day. I am steadily doing 10k steps a day with the occasional rest day. Like Saturday I did 500 steps total which was me moving from my bed, to kitchen to couch to bathroom etc. It was a blissful rest day. I watched a lot of episodes of the Vampire Diaries. This week I have been working on going to bed earlier and waking up earlier to fit in some Yoga in the morning. So far it has gone well and have done it 3 days in a row. I started some Yoga in the evening as well right before Bed. We will see if that one lasts but I do like that I am able to add some more healthy habits as I go along. I may get back to Dance Central as a periodic cardio thing to break up the other stuff or as an addition but for now I feel I have made great strides from being sedentary to being more active.
Every day is a change for the better. Any step backwards I analyze and improve upon. I will be the perfect me.
So I have to say I love my fitbit. Since I acquired the fitbit I have been trending towards a more active and balanced life. Doing paleo is great and I feel better and eat better but it wasn’t getting me to be more active. Or maybe it was but not to the extreme I have taken things at this point.
I actively strive to hit my daily goals. Over the last few weeks I have been slowly hitting my goals across the board. It makes the experience very personal and something I enjoy. Where I would have just sat on my couch when I get home, I instead look at my fitbit and go for a walk instead. If I see I am near an achievement I will put in some extra time to do it.
This week I hit a number of cool goals. I lost 10 lbs on my aria scale. I did 75 flights of stairs and then the next day I did 100 flights of stairs. I have made it into the top 5 of my friends which is kind of hard since the 10 3 exceed my 7 day totals by a good bit but in time who knows.
I also balance out my eating plan by tracking my daily intake. Not something i have to do but something I do just to get an idea of my eating habits and see when I may stray. I am being honest which is important because when I see fluctuations in my weight I have pretty good idea how it happened and now what to cut out as I go forward.
There is probably a bad habit of checking numbers and my scale. I weigh myself every morning. I may be a little obsessed with it. I am ok with it though because it keeps me on track and don’t get discouraged I get encouraged and determined to better myself.
I feel bad for neglecting this space so I will write a few things here.
As I said in an earlier post I got a fitbit. I will post more on that soon. So far I love it.
I was on vacation and was a little bad about eating. However I have gotten back on track. I am very happy with what I am doing.
Right now besides eating Paleo I am counting calories and watching my intake. The great thing is I really dont have to but to give myself a better idea of how I eat and how it affects me I am logging it on fitbit.
I realized contrary to my earlier belief dairy does have an effect on me. So I am cutting out my chai latte. I may have one once in a while but I was lying to myself that I could have one every day. Besides being 320 calories I also wasnt feeling great after drinking them. Now that I listen to my body more I am making sure to listen. So chai latte out.
Walking to work and home from work everyday now. The walk is getting better back home. I still feel like I want to die a little but I get something like 25 flights of stairs on my fitbit from doing it. So win.
I stopped stairs at work up from the bottom floor but decided to try it after lunch today. It wasnt awesome but it wasnt awful. We didnt end up moving to the 5th floor so I am still on the 9th floor. That walk is a beast but it is good for me. I will work harder to sneak it in.
Still no Yoga. Need to work on that.
Buying a fitbit scale this weekend so I can actually track my weight and not guess.
That is all.
I wanted to check in because I haven’t posted as often as I started and need to get back at it. I have been going strong living Paleo. I have cut down on the number of snacks I need to eat during the day. I eat a solid breakfast with lots of protein. I have a few pieces of fruit once I am at work. For lunch I usually have a baby spinach salad with some protein. Dinner is a small portion of meat and vegetables. The last week was a little bad of indulging in Chai Lattes, I had a tiny tiny bag of popcorn one day and a couple of regular french fries. The Chai really wasn’t so bad I just can’t have one every day. I need to make it more of an occasional treat. My body doesn’t freak out from the whole milk so I know it isn’t that bad but it isn’t that good either. The popcorn and fries however felt like bricks in my belly and just made me feel sluggish and blah. It was good to see that though and really listen to my body.
I started in February and now it is June. That makes 4 full months of awesome. I posted a picture to some friends from about 3 weeks or so ago and got some really great comments which is always inspiring. I went back to doing some Dance Central in the morning for some light cardio. I admit since moving to the 9th floor and having the plague I have stopped taking the stairs as much at work. 9 floors is kind of over kill for me. Good news is I move to the 5th floor this week so I will recommence with my stair walking then. I do continue to walk to work and will start looking at walking home now that the weather is super beautiful here. Plan is keep on eating like I do, increase cardio activity, and look into some strength training. That is all for now. Keep on being Awesome.
Today I had two interesting moments that led me to make some realizations. Besides losing weight, and getting healthier I have made a few other changes in my life and all of them have been for the better. So first off I lost weight and changed my diet which I have already talked about and will continue to talk about. I can see it in the mirror and feel it in how I carry myself. I feel a hell of a lot better. I sleep better, I have more energy and what little stomach issues I had before are non-existent. I have started to dress better. I bought nice dress shirts, shoes and a sports coat. Looking more professional has helped change perceptions and in turn improved mine as well of myself. I even took on a new position at work that keeps me busy but makes me feel accomplished and happy. Each of these things have helped contribute to my happiness.
I hadn’t realized how much I was putting into other things in order to be happy. Whether it was drinking, women or hobbies I was seeking happiness outside of myself. When those didnt work out or didnt bring me the happiness I sought I became more depressed. I wasnt happy with myself nor was I happy with life. But now I have so many things to be happy about, I don’t stress about one thing going wrong because so many things are going right.
It was really great to run into my leadership coach today and tell her about all the things that have changed since 8 months ago when I had my last session with her. At that time we discussed culture shock and I realized I was suffering from it but wasnt doing anything to change it. I finally did 4 months ago and now I cant imagine I was there at all when I am where I am now. I thanked her for advice. She was one of the many great people who are in my life that helped make me who I am today.
I still have a ways to go but I am taking the steps each day and not taking steps back. My life is on the right track. My Art to happiness is redefining my life.
I heard this quote while playing Dragon Age from a character called Sten. Now regardless of the source of the quote it was one of the phrases that really resonated with me while I was considering going Paleo and changing my lifestyle. It goes well with another quote on the definition of Insanity “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” from Albert Einstein. I am pretty sure I was the living definition of insanity for a while. I was upset with my life but I was doing nothing to change it. Even when all evidence pointed to the common denominator being me. I was the thing that needed changing not the world.
I find the only difference between a miserable person and a happy person is what they put their focus on in life. The miserable person dwells on the bad in their life missing out constantly on the good that they experience everyday while the happy person dwells on the good that is in their life and let the bad that happens fall to the way side. Sure some people have it better or worse than others but their perception and how they deal with their experiences is what compounds it all.
Since going paleo, becoming more active, taking better care of myself and just changing my perceptions to focus on the positive I have become happier. I have many of the same problems I had before but they don’t seem so overwhelming. Being able to see physical change is always a great motivator and a positive reward for my actions. In the end I am becoming the person I want to be and in turn I have changed my world.
Chris Does Anything 