I posted my schedule for this week and will post my food for Monday – Thursday, but I will be out of the country from 8/27 to 9/6, and probably won’t have internet access.   To say the least, I am a little scared and nervous about being someplace where I will have so little control over my food options, but I am going to do my best while I am gone!

Tonight I found a box of clothes in the back of my closet.  They were items I packed over the years that were too small.  Most of them I had never worn.  Tonight I went through the box and doubled my current wardrobe and have some things for the near future.

There are benefits and goals I don’t think of sometimes.  So I am stopping to take a moment to be grateful…

It seems like I rarely have time to write anymore!  Between work, school, meetings, zoo, the gym, friends, scuba and all the little stuff in between, I just seem to be on the go alot.  Before I start to sound like I am complaining, let me say how grateful I am for all off this because I can remember a time when it was just me and drugs, or just me and food.  Those things had become my whole world.  I didn’t have time to do anything else and I never had time for anybody else.

So today I have to schedule myself a bit more.  But the fact is what I am scheduling is so worth it.  Yesterday I worked at the zoo, went to the gym and took a nap.  Today I had study group with friends, went to Mass and I am thinking about another nap before I dive into a paper that is due for school.  By getting up early this morning I got to enjoy a beautiful start to the day in splendid weather.

The food on my food plan today tastes both delicious and filling.  Gratitude abounds!

Today I took my first scuba class.  Taking scuba lessons was one of my weight loss goals, and I have earned it!   As soon as I get the picture of me grinning like a fool underwater I will share it with all of you.  I need weight loss goals that keep me motivated.  They have to be things that I value and will bring me joy.  Not only did it bring me joy today to learn to scuba, but it was such a pleasure to go to a public pool, put on a bathing suit and get in the water without being all freaked out about “Jeff in a bathing suit”.

I did have some nervousness about that in the morning, but by the time I got there it had vanished.  That’s worth a whole lot to me!

I’m going to be camping Friday – Saturday in West Virginia.  I am going to try and keep track of my food.  I may have to resort to….gasp… pencil and paper.  I know the menu will be healthy and I think it’s vegetarian, but it’s not my menu, so I will have to watch myself and see how the new skills are developing.  I will give you an update next week!

Hey folks – Just an FYI that I will be offline this weekend without access to the internet.  I am traveling to my hometown to spend a couple of days.  I will be logging my food and working out while I am there.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lots to talk about tonight.  At least I hope I have lots to talk about as I have a lot on my mind.  I will try to make sure this is not another one of those posit-note posts!

Fast & Easy

You have heard me complain about this endlessly.  Every time I read about a diet product or see an ad on TV.  But I really sat back to examine why it drives me so crazy.  I am sure many of you have heard the cliche, “If you spot it, you got it!”, usually in reference to pointing out other people’s character flaws that drive us crazy.  Well, time for me to name names and shame the devil here…. I got it.  I may not fall for the “fast & easy” slogans about diet products, but I sure make it a part of my life in other areas.  I mentioned something along this lin about food preparation the other day.  I end up eating steamed vegetables and roasted chicken breast not because I love it, but because it’s… any guesses, let’s not always see the same hands… bingo…fast & easy.  I tend to dread the things that take up a block of time.  Sure my schedule is full (more on that in a bit, but it isn’t so full I can’t prepare interesting, enjoyable food.  And if it is I need to prioritize.  Anything that I place ahead of my journey to health will be the thing I stumble over on the way there. 

My problem is I have developed a lifestyle that wants the rewards without having to do a lot of work.  I am sure I picked it up from my nutritional habits.  I can stop by 7-11 on the way home and get a meal that takes absolutely no preparation and I can start eating it as I walk out of the store.  There’s a flashback!  But what am I eating and what good is it doing me?

I want to have a healthy blood pressure and be off blood pressure medications, but not if it means I have to work out for 90 minutes a week for six months.  That’s drawn out & hard; words that make me shudder to type them.  I want to learn new things, and discover more about myself, but not if I have to dedicate time to meditate each week.   If change was easy we would all do it all the time.  It’s not.  It comes in varying degrees of difficulty and takes varying amounts of time.  That must be where the came up with the phrase “no pain…no gain”

The Artist’s Way

I started a new venture on my journey to health this week.  I am part of a creative cluster going through the book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  If you aren’t familiar with her work you can check it out at, www.theartistsway.com .  Guess what, the program requires me to invest 7-10 hours a week.  Yay….more work.  But the rewards are supposed to be amazing and the people in my creative cluster are a joy and a blessing.  I am sure I will post information about what I am doing from time to time with the group.  One of the benefit’s is that it’s something new and exciting and it helps round me out.  No pun intended.  I don’t have to just be about diet and exercise!

My Schedule

So my attempt to be more focused, with flexibility, a couple of weeks ago was not the most successful attempt in the world.  I got through all the things I was required to do, and a few of the things I should do, and none of the things I wanted to do.  So I am trying again.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and being more schedule minded isn’t going to happen overnight.  One of the reasons I am doing this is because when I let my schedule get out of whack two things immediately happend.  I end up eating roasted chicken breast and steamed vegetables and my set time to exercise is always “tomorrow”.  While Annie may be able to make the sun come out tomorrow, I can’t seem to get myself to the fitness center if “tomorrow” is my goal.  So here goes…

I was sitting here tonight, entering my food in my food log and I was thinking about what I should blog about tonight and it just made me tired to think about blogging about being a fat boy.

Perhaps that should set off warning bells in my head about blogging.  Here I am on day 8 and I am already tired of it?   In the big picture, no, I’m not really.  But this is all a bit new to me and only sharing my food plan, exercise plan, etc. feels a bit obsessive today. 

So here is the plan for tonight.  I am going to blog about more of me.  Because, clearly, there is a lot of me to love.  I am not going to start an autobiography, if for no other reason than my mother would want to have first choice of who played her if this ever becomes a movie and we would be in the battle of the Joans.  I would want to choose Joan Crawford and she would want to choose Joan Collins.  You can see how ugly that would get.

Instead I am just going to share a little bit about my day.  Here is the friend I hung out with today.  He doesn’t have a name.  Well he does and he has told me several times, but I can’t pronounce it, and I sure as heck can’t spell it.  He is a handsome specimen of a Dusky Titi monkey and he lives in the Amazonia exhibit at National Zoo, where I am a volunteer.  We spend about 3 days a month together, and I would like to think he recognizes me.  You can tell from the way he is ravaging that leaf that he is thrilled to see me and just doesn’t want to show it.

I include him in my narrative, because when I am at the zoo, I am really happy. I get to work with great animals and share important information about the rainforest and conservation with the guests.  He doesn’t care that I am a mad fat boy, though I must say he was a little suspicious of me getting too close to his leaf; and neither do the guests who come to visit him.  He sees me as an interesting, and perhaps amusing distraction to his busy day of eating, sleeping and grooming, and they see me as the nice guy who enjoys answering questions and getting them involved in what they are seeing.

So, yep, I’m a fat boy.  But that isn’t all I of what I am and I am going to choose to love all of me.