Day 348 The Importance Level and Walking With Mom

Day 348

The Importance Level and Walking With Mom

I feel so weird right now. My body feels good, my vision is sharp, my muscles feel relaxed. So this is what it feels like to get a solid nine hours of sleep? Wow, nice. I needed it and I took it. It's Saturday morning already and below you'll find the Friday August 28th edition of this blog---I was too tired to post last night. Just couldn't function properly. I had a voice-mail greet me this morning, I still don't know exactly for sure who it is, all they said was “I'd like to report that my morning edition of the Daily Diary of a Winning Loser is missing, please have someone deliver it soon, thank you!” No problem, I'll call the circulation department right now! OK—In listening to it again for that quote, I figured out who it was. It's good to have friends, huh? I never feel right just going to bed without posting. In 348 days, it's happened less than 10 times. Just couldn't help it last night. Getting rest was the only option. I needed it and I took it. Sometimes you have to force yourself to do what's right for YOU. So, I'll rewind my brain now and do my best at recalling the events, thoughts, emotions, and choices that made up a wonderful Friday, and I'll do it from the perspective of Friday night. That can be tough, because it's sooo Saturday morning right now. Once again, Day 348:

Last night I had very little sleep and I did it with the intention of grabbing a nap during an hour and a half window in my afternoon. I'm really getting tired of writing about my sleep schedule. Sleep deprivation isn't healthy, I know that. It negatively effects the metabolism, I know that. I've 'decided' several times that I no longer will sacrifice sleep in the name of a busy schedule, and still here we are. Apparently it hasn't been an “Iron-Clad” decision, more of an “elastic” decision that can be stretched to accommodate the consequences of my schedule and my poor time management skills within, completely defeating the purpose of the decision in the first place. I just had a wonderful conversation with my mom and her sister, my aunt Kelli—about giving their weight loss journey the proper importance level in their life. When we don't give what we're doing the highest level of importance, it becomes too easy to rationalize bad choices. The same idea applies to my sleep schedule. I need to check where I set that importance level, because it's obviously too low.

One of the constant struggles I've dealt with involves my morning coffee. I was never a coffee drinker before I started doing a morning radio show. Before I became hooked on the morning brew, I'd just shoot some real Coke first thing when I woke up. My addiction to Coke-a-Cola was fierce, and for mainly the same reason: caffeine. I completely stopped drinking real pop as soon as I started this journey. And I very rarely drink diet pop with the exception of a diet 7up on occasion. I drink water all day now. Many times the water is flavored with a zero calorie green tea mix that's loaded with antioxidants, whatever those are. They must fight the oxidants or something. Good deal. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Coffee is something that I use. Way to sound like an addict Sean. This morning I limited myself to two cups with that 10 calorie a teaspoon non-dairy creamer. I still invested 60 calories in creamer. Some days are worse than others, I spent 170 calories one day just on coffee creamer. And that's my struggle. Not really that big of a deal right? Oh but wait! Did I just say “not that big of a deal” ?? That's exactly why I'll continue to enjoy my creamer calories that still seem so empty. The importance level of that struggle isn't high enough to even deserve a paragraph in these writings. Too late.

The importance level we set for things isn't something we just say. It's easy to say, “my weight loss efforts will be of utmost importance from this point forward.” It's ultimately set by our actions, not our words. If you find yourself making excuses and coming up with rationalizations that make bad choices seem alright, then maybe you need to check the importance level. Check it often, because it can deplete without you realizing. How do you check it? With complete honesty, that's your dipstick. Richard Simmons tweeted this today: “There is only one way to lose weight and keep it off. And it's by being truthful with yourself about the food...” 100% self-honesty is crucial to your success. I've written about this many times because it's something that I never did before with past failed attempts. Since day one nearly a year ago, this self-honesty policy has been firmly in place, and you know what kind of results I've had. The self-honesty component is vital to the mental changes required on this road to permanent success. Make this one of the most important things you've ever done. Give it the highest important level. Get completely honest with yourself about the habits you know are holding you back---and then get ready for an almost magically transformation of mind and body. Forget “almost,” it is magical.

I put in another “split shift” today. After leaving work this afternoon and grabbing that quick nap, I prepared to travel South to my hometown of Stillwater. Team Radio has a sports talk station in Stillwater and my job tonight was trying to figure out a few kinks in the on-air computer system. I really didn't plan on being there too long, maybe twenty minutes. Twenty minutes quickly turned into two and a half hours. After I left the Stillwater studio, I grabbed two 160 calorie tacos from Taco Mayo and headed for grandma's house. I had a nice visit with family, and even though it was getting crazy late, my mom and I hit the neighborhood streets for a good walk.

It was so wonderful to walk with her. I'm so proud of how far she's come. From her highest weight, she's actually down over 50 pounds. Her last weigh-in gave her another 3 ½ pound loss. I can tell by her actions that she's completely with me along this road. When I left the studio I called to let everyone know I'd be coming in for a short visit right after I picked up a couple of tacos. I asked if anyone needing anything---and nobody gave me an order! My mom loves tacos. Loves them like me. And like the old me, she never needed a good reason or a feeling of hunger to enjoy tacos. Late night taco runs were always a normal thing for us Anderson's. I can't tell you how many times I've heard her say “bring me a taco!” But not tonight. Not now. Her importance level is set really high. Her calorie budget for the day was exhausted and she said “no, no I don't need anything.” And then we walked. It was a beautiful thing my friend. My mom was always the queen of complication. She has every diet book and magazine article ever written on HOW to lose weight. The different opinions and philosophies did nothing but contradict and confuse her. And now she finally realizes that a simplistic approach filled with self-honesty, a good calorie budget, exercise, and truly changing our minds and attitudes about food and exercise is all she ever needed.

Rach, a fellow weight loss blogger and long time friend (find her at www.creatingthemeinside.blogspot.com )had a funny little happening today. She told me that she was in the drive thru at McDonald's getting ready to make some bad choices when suddenly my voice on a commercial came over the Oklahoma City radio station she was enjoying. She heard me and immediately changed her order to good choices. That's so cool. Way to go Rach! I don't think that was the effect the commercial intended to have on listeners (you were suppose to go spend large amounts of money at that advertiser), but seriously—that's awesome. Although I'm not sure if I want the mere sound of my voice to become the “good choices” police, but if it reminded you of the importance level of your journey, then great!

I arrived back home at 12:30am and I still had a couple of hundred calories remaining for the day. I grabbed one of those 60 calorie Joseph's flax seed, oat bran, and whole wheat pitas—some tomato sauce, low-fat part skim mozzarella, and some fresh mushrooms and “blammo” a 150 calorie pizza was on! I'm getting seriously addicted to these low calorie pizzas, I mean for real! I picked up the word “Blammo” from Jack during the interview. Thanks Jack. That's the 43rd time I've used that word since we spoke.

Speaking of that interview! It'll be available for your listening pleasure until sometime Monday evening, when it will be replaced with a promo announcement for the next exclusive Daily Diary of a Winning Loser interview. The next willing participant? Tony “The Anti-Jared” Posnanski. Find Tony here: www.theantijared.blogspot.com

At nearly 1am I found my place in front of the computer screen, opened the necessary programs, and immediately started fighting sleep. I decided to let sleep win this one. Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean