Day 482 Seriously Imperfect Improvements and A Pleasure Instead of A Chore

Day 482

Seriously Imperfect Improvements and A Pleasure Instead of A Chore

Mom and I need to do this more often! We're having fun and enjoying our time together. Every now and then I'll start breaking out the weight loss philosophy with her and we'll discuss all of the angles. My dear sweet mother has been brainwashed by a lifetime of weight loss magazine articles and books promoting every diet known to humankind. Trying to simplify this process, completely un-complicating and untangling years worth of weight loss misconceptions and contradictions, can be a real challenge. But we're winning! And she's losing. It's critical for mom at this point. At 64, the possible consequence of her good choices are extra years added to her life. And of course this life extending choice is true for all of us regardless of age. She's choosing to extend her life. How powerful is that? Seriously so.

I do understand the concern some of my friends have when I talk about fast food choices. I've written many times about my philosophy concerning these choices. I have a lifetime of fast food history, it's one of the reasons I packed on the fat, weighing over 500 pounds for nearly two decades. My choices yesterday compared to my choices back then are night and day different. Yesterday mornings breakfast of scrambled eggs and a fruit and yogurt cup without granola totaled 300 calories and contained 230 mg of sodium, or 10% of what's considered normal for a day. In comparison to a typical pre-journey McDonald's breakfast for me, well---it's a drastic improvement. What kind of breakfast would I order before? A Deluxe Big Breakfast contains 1,090 calories and 2150 mg of sodium—90% of the recommended daily value of sodium. And that calorie total is without syrup or margarine for the hotcakes! And if it came with a buttermilk biscuit, then you can bet I was ordering a side of gravy to pour over. I was a mess. The choices we made yesterday were drastic improvements.

I can't say I'll never eat fast food again, but you can bet I'll be armed with information that helps me make the best possible choice at the moment of ordering. I'll never abuse myself with fast food again, I do know that! I just have a hard time believing that it's all bad. 95% bad? Yes...it's 95% garbage, I think we can all agree, but the remaining 5% offers some wonderful choices in a very convenient way.

My weight loss philosophy weighs heavy on the psychological elements that make this hard or make this as easy as it can be. We tend to naturally complicate things by setting up rules going into our weight loss plan. Often times these rules are so far from our normal way of life, it makes it almost impossible to remain “on plan.” And when we deviate from our plan, we feel like we've failed. Really strong willed people can do it with a long list of rules from day 1, but I've always felt weak and nearly hopeless for change in the weight loss department. My simplistic approach has worked for me—a raging food addict who feared he could never play by the rules that I thought were needed for weight loss. I've failed at losing weight so many times---and I remember each attempt. I've picked them apart and thrown them all away, except for the most simple elements---and the solutions I've found have worked wonderfully. It's not perfect. How many times have I said that? And it doesn't need to be perfect. But it has been a pleasure instead of a chore. And that's one of the most refreshing and important things about this transformation experience. It must be a pleasure instead of a chore.

I sincerely appreciate concern that people express for me, I do. It's your amazing support that has taken this entire experience over the top. And I'm learning as I go and I continue to learn. I'm seriously open to learning new things about nutrition and fitness. I've learned several valuable points from readers all over the world and friends here at home like Dr. Amy and Melissa Walden. I'll continue to learn as I go and my ultimate fitness goals and dreams will be realized. That's exciting!

I prepared that wonderful dinner last night and tonight I did it again! This time I prepared a chicken spaghetti dish with mushrooms, onions, grilled chicken, and marinara. Oh wow...it was good! The calories were calculated at 400 per serving---not bad for a complete meal. See the pictures below.

The workout I've been doing every night is something I can do right here in the apartment or downstairs in the fitness room. I do need to buy some dumbbells. Most of these movements rely on my body weight for resistance. The best kind if you ask me! I know the soreness will improve and I certainly don't mean to sound like a little baby, but wow---I'm seriously sore! I hope to connect with Melissa sometime tomorrow to get that new body fat analysis. I'm excited about that!

I took mom to a little karaoke place tonight. OK---It was a bar. I'm not sure I've ever been inside a bar with my mom. We were there for the karaoke, that's it! We sipped water and at one point shared a Diet Coke. I performed one song (Rose Colored Glasses), we finished our “drinks,” and decided it was time to leave before the place got rowdy! It was fun and mom could certainly see how losing this weight has given me an amazing amount of confidence. I would have never done this at over 500 pounds, I mean never. I was always too self-conscious, always. It's funny---at over 500 pounds I could easily get on stage and speak---but singing or acting? Forget it. I guess I convinced myself that 500 pound people didn't do those things. Hmmm, interesting what we tell ourselves.

Thank you for reading. Your support is invaluable to me! I hope the rest of your weekend is grand. Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean


Friday night's dinner


Saturday night's dinner