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I am a creature of habit.
If I go to the gym religiously, it isn’t a problem. If I eat relatively healthy regularly, it is easier to stay on track. But if I take a break from the gym and eat like hell, it takes a small act of God to get me back where I should be.
Today is the day I’m getting back on track. Since it is my first day back to work, I figured it worked out well. Back to work, back to the gym, back to eating like I’ve got some sense.
So this morning I went to the gym around 7 a.m., picked up that Jamie Eason plan where I left off and did a round of C210K, which I haven’t done but once since I hurt my foot.
And when I left the gym shortly after 9 a.m., I felt accomplished. I know that mornings like this are good for my body and for my soul. I just need to remember that when the temptation to stay in bed and do nothing all day is there.
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Side note: In a Monday article about New Year’s resolutions (Set Realistic Goals for 2013), this is included:
Michelle Ennis, manager of Onslow Fitness, located at 1140 Henderson Drive, agrees … that it is key to keep goals realistic when trying to lose weight or regain a healthy lifestyle.
“Sometimes we think that we are heavier than we actually are, and sometimes we don’t realize how far we’ve strayed from where we should be,” Ennis said.
Ennis said that losing weight isn’t rocket science.
“It is calories in versus calories out,” she said. “It is healthy eating and exercise. There is no magic bullet. Mostly, it is consistency.”
She said people don’t have to work out seven days a week or spend two to three hours at the gym a day to lose weight and get healthy.
“If people can devote two to three hours per week to their health, they can be very successful,” she said.
Ennis said there are two things that are important when it comes to weight loss.
“Number one — all movement counts. People need to get moving,” she said. “Number two — sometimes the smallest changes that make the biggest impact nutritionally.”
For more tips on New Year’s Resolutions, click the article link 
2012 has been one hell of a ride, guys and gals.
This year I met my goal weight, began running and began weight lifting. None of which I thought would happen but… it did.
And it doesn’t stop here.
A few hopes and dreams for 2013:
I’m about to become sappy so bear with me.
I’ve tried quitting smoking before, sometimes for myself and sometimes because it was requested. And while last year I had some luck, I went back to my old ways.
This time the decision to quit smoking wasn’t so much it being suggested (and I do mean suggested, not requested) as it is the person who is concerned about the health effects of my smoking is important. And when I want to have a long time with one person, I don’t want to take any more years away than necessary.
So, Tuesday the cigarettes go down, the nicotine gum comes back out and the long stretch of getting used to not smoking all over again begins.
I’m contemplating a rewards program much as I did for losing weight. Something on the lines of:
1 week no cigarettes (Approximately $37 saved): Pedicure.
1 month no cigarettes (Approximately $300 saved): Large payment on favorite store’s credit card (obviously more of a gift for my credit score than me but…).
Each day I will throw the money not spent on cigarettes into a jar and see where we go. I can do this, I know I can. It’s just a matter of focusing and getting it done.
And for those of you looking to start a weight-loss journey in 2013…
Lighten Up Onslow is beginning a new competition in January. Initially when my journey began, a few friends and I signed up for it. The friends bailed at the time and I went my own way with the journey, but it’s a good program. Maybe you want to check it out. Website or article about program.
I don’t know about you but when I can finally accomplish something that I tried before and could not do, it’s like a breath of fresh air.
A few months ago, when I first started working out with trainer friend, she had me try to bench the barbell. It didn’t go well. In fact, it went pretty damn awful. It went so bad that I outright refused to try it again at the Tarawa Terrace II gym with her for fear of looking like a doofus in public.
Fast forward to this morning: I’m starting phase 2 in the Jamie Eason live fit plan and, sure enough, first thing Im supposed to do today is bench the barbell. I looked at Christine in dismay. She said I could do it. I wanted to tell her to be sure to call 911 when I inevitably dropped the bar on my chest and broke myself. I refrained, this alone is a rarity.
I made it through the first set, and was 99 percent certain it was a fluke. The plan was a warm up set, three regular set and a set of negatives. I don’t know what that is so we’re going with five sets of eight and calling it done. And sure enough, I made it through without injuring myself or dying.
And accomplishments like that make it all worth it. Every bit of sweat, every curse that comes out of my mouth while working out (and there are lots of them), every sore muscle… All worth it. Just because I can now do something I couldn’t previously.
That, my friends, is what this is about: each time I become able to do something I could not do previously, it is a victory. And I’ll take each and every one of them.
I’m lacking in things to say (mark that on your calendar, it won’t happen often), so we’re taking a different route this week. There are many people in the area or in my cyber world of friends that are on a similar journey. Wednesday I asked them one question via Facebook: What is one of the most challenging things you’ve faced and how did you get past it?
Here are their answers, and mine below them.
Richard Clark, Regional Desk Chief:
Most difficult two things have been 1) simply staying with it. Once the novelty wears off the hardest part is simply getting up and doing it everyday. I try to get over it by using my friends that are doing as motivation, the old “if they can do it, you can do it” story. And the Rock of course. (his tweets).
2) Eating trash. This has far and away been much more difficult than I ever anticipated. And honestly, it’s still a work in progress.
Mike Jones, JDNews reader/Facebook friend:
I started with a “Silver Sneakers” class to get into the habit of trying to leave the house and be in a “smaller crowd. Larger crowds really creep me out. The movements they perform are all geared for the basic lifestyle of keeping joints active using daily type functions as putting on a belt or pouring motions. Since taking it I have noticed I am having less troubles pouring water from the pot into the coffee maker. My shortcoming is and probably has been “inconsistency”. That is what I “need to” work on most.
And, then me:
The hardest part of this journey, for me, is not falling into old habits. Let’s be serious, when you set out to lose weight you don’t think of it being a forever change. You get the weight off, you enjoy pizza again. Or at least that was my logic. And it was wrong.
I don’t watch what I eat nearly as close as some of the people I’ve met during this journey but I do know that I don’t want to get back into the old bad habits that put the weight on me in the first place. After all, I’ve worked damn hard to get this weight off, I don’t want it back. Ever. If I ever have children, I want that weight gone immediately also. In short: I want to wear size fives or smaller forever. FOREVER. But my love for pizza, Bojangles and all things yummy could deter me from that goal. So I’m learning will power. And how to cook. And how to say “no” when what I want to say is “YES! I want that food! But only if you can keep it off my ass!”
It’s weird to think that the actual work that I found so intimidating in the beginning is not in fact the hardest part of this journey now a days… but as Mr. Clark says, it is what it is.
I’m not much of a confessor. In fact, my general logic is that what I do is no one’s business except for mine. But, alas, I’ll take this one public.
Last week was bad.
Since I was out of the gym and generally mad at the world due to my foot, I was eating like a pig. Anything and everything, healthy or not but especially the not items, were fair game.
Due to my poor eating and lack of exercise, I gained a couple pounds last week. Monday’s weigh in was an eye opener. If I gained a couple in a week and I ate like that for years… no wonder I was the size I was.
And apparently most of the weight gained was salt since a day of good eating and high water intake, and I was down two pounds again.
This week I’m back in the gym since my foot isn’t bothering me. I will get back on track. And all will be well
After months of working on my balance with trainer friend, I managed to sprain my foot doing absolutely nothing athletic or exciting. And obviously nothing graceful.
See spiffy boot
On Sunday, trainer friend and I went to the N.C. Symphony performance at Northside High. This should have been a simple outing with a girlfriend to enjoy music. No more, no less.
Instead the queen klutz (that is me) managed to sprain her foot getting up to leave the auditorium for a brief intermission (read: I needed to search for the restroom).
No kidding, I stood, my foot went to the right, I heard a sound, I assumed it was the boot I was wearing and tried to walk it off. After all, my foot felt like it was asleep. It should have woken up soon after, in my opinion.
It didn’t work.
After the performance, I opted to ice it. But anyone who knows me can vouch for I am determined when I want to be and I had plans Sunday night so the boot went back on and I went out as planned. Limping the entire time.
At around 4 a.m. Monday, I woke up and my foot was radiating the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I’m an anti-doctor’s office kind of girl. I was there by 11 a.m. with my gym buddy driving me (Read: Ensuring I was being nice to doctor’s office staff).
By 1 p.m., the doc had informed us that I hadn’t broken anything, which was great. The bad news is I’ve got the boot, two weeks worth of 800 mg Ibuprofen, and everything I’m reading says two weeks is the least amount of time I can expect before it’ll be healed.
And I only had one jog left in C25K.
So for the next two weeks, I won’t be posting much as I’ll be sulking around and limping while I do so. But pray for quick healing for this foot of mine. I’d like to finish C25K before Christmas.
I wish the holidays were my only concern about this time of year. Instead off worrying about three days, three holidays, I’m worried about my desire to be social while enjoying fun meals being at all-time high.
Each morning I get up, eat my cereal and tell myself that today will be better. Today is the day I’m going to get my eating back on track.
And each day, by lunch, that goal has gone through the window.
Tuesday I held strong until dinner with a friend and his sister… the meal involved a fast food restaurant, a chicken sandwich, fabulous fries, mozzarella sticks and potato cake type things… I didn’t even finish counting my calories.
Today I’m doing better… but the donuts from dunkin that were sitting on the other side of my cubicle wall were calling to me…
And I caved.
This time of year is the time to remember that you can’t out exercise a bad diet.
Though I sure do try…
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK — Americans get too many calories from soda. But what about alcohol? It turns out adults get almost as many empty calories from booze as from soft drinks, a government study found.
Soda and other sweetened drinks — the focus of obesity-fighting public health campaigns — are the source of about 6 percent of the calories adults consume, on average. Alcoholic beverages account for about 5 percent, the new study found.
“We’ve been focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages. This is something new,” said Cynthia Ogden, one of the study’s authors. She’s an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which released its findings Thursday.
The government researchers say the findings deserve attention because, like soda, alcohol contains few nutrients but plenty of calories.
But a liquor trade association said the findings indicate there’s no big problem.
“This research shows that the overwhelming majority of adults drink moderately,” Lisa Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said in a statement.
The CDC study is based on interviews with more than 11,000 U.S. adults from 2007 through 2010. Participants were asked extensive questions about what they ate and drank over the previous 24 hours.
The study found:
—On any given day, about one-third of men and one-fifth of women consumed calories from beer, wine or liquor.
—Averaged out to all adults, the average guy drinks 150 calories from alcohol each day, or the equivalent of a can of Budweiser.
—The average woman drinks about 50 calories, or roughly half a glass of wine.
—Men drink mostly beer. For women, there was no clear favorite among alcoholic beverages.
—There was no racial or ethnic difference in average calories consumed from alcoholic beverages. But there was an age difference, with younger adults putting more of it away.
For reference, a 12-ounce can of regular Coca-Cola has 140 calories, slightly less than a same-sized can of regular Bud. A 5-ounce glass of wine is around 100 calories.
In September, New York City approved an unprecedented measure cracking down on giant sodas, those bigger than 16 ounces, or half a liter. It will take effect in March and bans sales of drinks that large at restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands.
Should New York officials now start cracking down on tall-boy beers and monster margaritas?
There are no plans for that, city health department officials said, adding in a statement that while studies show that sugary drinks are “a key driver of the obesity epidemic,” alcohol is not.
Health officials should think about enacting policies to limit alcoholic intake, but New York’s focus on sodas is appropriate, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public health advocacy group.
Soda and sweetened beverages are the bigger problem, especially when it comes to kids — the No. 1 source of calories in the U.S. diet, she said.
“In New York City, it was smart to start with sugary drinks. Let’s see how it goes and then think about next steps,” she said.
However, she lamented that the Obama administration is planning to exempt alcoholic beverages from proposed federal regulations requiring calorie labeling on restaurant menus.
It could set up a confusing scenario in which, say, a raspberry iced tea may have a calorie count listed, while an alcohol-laden Long Island Iced Tea — with more than four times as many calories — doesn’t. “It could give people the wrong idea,” she said.
I don’t know about you, but this really isn’t that surprising. I drink, on average, three diet mt. dews a day at 10 calories each. But on an average night out with friends, I’ll throw back a few adult beverages ranging from 100 calories to about 250 calories each. Even if you only have one or two drinks, the calories add up and inevitably the bloat makes itself known the next morning.
Bodybuilding.com
I have a short attention span. Unless a workout is planned, I basically float from one thing to the next, not really sure what I’m doing.
After watching my gym buddy do Jamie Eason’s 12-week plan, I pondered doing it. I even looked it up.
She’s nearly done with it for the second time, and I’m finally getting started.
It comes with spiffy PDFs that you just print out for your daily workout. It even gives you a meal plan (which I’m not looking at since my cooking skills are limited and I hate 99 percent of vegetables). In short: It does all the planning for you.
Tuesday was day 1, chest and triceps. For some reason, I thought doing C210K first, as I normally do, was a good idea. I did my first 25-minute jog and felt accomplished but near death by the end of it. After a break, it was time to get back on it. And by the time I was done with Ms. Eason’s idea of a first day workout, I was fairly certain I was going to die. I didn’t, obviously, but I can definitely understand why she doesn’t include cardio in the beginning. Rumor has it she does later on, I’m not brave enough to look ahead.
Today was day two, back and biceps. And I can honestly say that now, five hours after I finished, it hurts to move my arms. That, my friends, is a sign of a good workout. Today I tried doing C210K after the strength portion and, I can honestly say, I’ll be doing it first from now on. By the time I was 10 minutes into my jog, I was fairly certain I was going to fall off the treadmill. I ended up jogging 20 minutes but 25 was simply not happening. Not to mention it’s easier to jog when you don’t have four cups of water (which is what I down during my typical strength workout) sloshing around.
Tomorrow is legs/calves. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. But my gym buddy will be there to keep me going when I feel like giving up, so I know I’ll get through it. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to walk after.
When I began this weight loss journey, I often heard that having someone to workout with or to encourage you when you’re struggling, basically have a friend doing the journey with you, helps.
I didn’t believe it at first. I went for my nightly walks by myself 99 percent of the time, though occasionally a friend of mine’s husband would drive by playing the Rocky theme song. I didn’t workout with anyone else. I rarely ate meals with anyone else unless I was cheating.
Then I joined a weight loss group at the suggestion of a friend (who oddly enough has always been my go-to for cheat meal dates) and met a few amazing girls who could keep me in check when I wanted to give up.
Among them is Christine. Christine’s a bit older than me (the age difference between she and I is about the same as the gap between me and her teenage daughter) but when we first met, we hit it off. I began to work out with her every now and again, and that grew to our current arrangement: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we work out together each morning provided no breaking news comes up.
Christine and I at the aquarium over the summer.
On the mornings when I don’t want to workout, knowing Christine will be at the gym gets me moving. On the days when I’m simply not motivated to workout once I get there, watching Christine get her workout done (and make it look easy) helps.
To be blunt about it, Christine and I’s schedule keeps me on track as much as I am. I enjoy our morning workouts and chats, and certainly don’t mind the breaks we take during our workouts. I know that if I’m doing C25K or C210K and am starting to visibly struggle, she’ll encourage me to keep going. I know she’ll keep me from dropping a weight on my face when I’m attempting to increase what I’m lifting. I know she’ll be there.
And Christine isn’t the only one.
Among our mutual friends is Jessica, a little fireball who is on the same journey. You know how there are those people you meet who seem to embrace the hell out of life and make it so much more enjoyable? She’s one of those. She also happens to have her gym beast mode on lock. I miss having the chance to work out with her since she moved since, as much as I hated it during, I always knew that going to the gym with Jessica would result in a massive workout. Of course, I miss her company while taking Chopper for walks, too.
And then there’s Naomi. Every one on a weight loss journey should have a Naomi. This girl looks like Barbie but can shame many men in the gym. Her knowledge is amazing. Nearly every Monday she and I go to the gym together and I never know what I’m getting myself into. You see, while I go to the gym as a hobby and for anger management at this point, Naomi lives and works there (insert shameless plug for Naomi here). And, luckily for me, she has little problem convincing me to follow her lead while there. (I’m a bit stubborn, blind following isn’t something I’m good at.)
For example, Monday when we went she said we were going to do something a bit different. This wasn’t surprising since I’d convinced her to do legs days the last few times we went, but it still scared the hell out of me. When Naomi gets that little glimmer of ideas in her eyes, it can be scary. But a few machines later, I knew that her ideas were (as usual) good ones and that I’d be feeling that workout later.
Friends, I’ve learned, are key to this journey. Lighten Up! Onslow knew this, apparently. The program, which begins its next challenge Jan. 21, encourages area residents to work in teams to lose weight. Friends, coworkers and families have participated in the challenge together and, even if they didn’t win the challenge, made progress in their weight loss goals.
This journey is a difficult one. Having someone by your side, or in my lucky case a few someones, to encourage you, listen to your concerns when you want to quit, and to help you better yourself is a beautiful thing.
