I had planned today to blog about exercise, its importance, and getting back on the exercise wagon after some life circumstance that throws you off. Then I stepped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh-in, and it became apparent there was another blog post in me that was much more apropos and pressing. It’s what I fell into over the past two days: The Complacency Trap…
This week went pretty well. I rededicated myself to healthy eating, and I did really well with eating low-cal, healthy, and nutritious meals, with very light snacking. That was through Wednesday. I woke up Thursday morning and weighed, and I was » Read more: Weekly Weigh-In #43: The Complacency Trap
I’m ba-ack!!! And I couldn’t think of a better anthem to return to ReconstructingThirty.com than the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started!” I mean, any hip-hop group that has fans spanning from the pre-school set, to we thirty-somethings, to the baby boomers, is pretty frackin’ awesome in my book. So here goes…
As I mentioned in June, I needed to take a summer break from blogging. I sat for the bar exam in late July, and I had to really dedicate a couple of months to studying, without the marvelous obsession distraction that is blogging. Now begins the long three month wait for the results [sigh]. So, you may ask, how does the guy who used to weigh 308 pounds, and used food as his drug of choice, get through the stress of a bar exam? Did I gain twenty pounds? Did I get too stressed to eat and drop thirty? Did I break out like a 16-year old before a big date? (Answer to that last one: almost – pimples here and there – but no full-on break out).
Well – I’ve taken Reconstructing 30 on the road this weekend. I’m in my adopted hometown of Houston! I lived here for a little over three years, and I really did love it. Houston isn’t for everyone, and it’s very much a car-based city, but it really has some amazing assets, including the Texas Medical Center (the world’s largest!), some really beautiful neighborhoods with fantastic parks and museums, and wonderfully friendly people. If you’ve never visited Houston, here’s a taste of it – convention and visitors’ bureau style:
So I’m here to take care of a bit of business (if you know of anyone who wants to buy a beautiful 2BR/2BA condo near the Texas Medical Center and Rice University, send them my way!), but the nice side benefit is getting to see my wonderful friends here in Houston. Which includes visiting some of Houston’s amazing restaurants… Am I making perfect choices that would lead to consistent weight loss if I ate these things on a daily basis? No. Am I making mainly healthy choices, controlling portions, and eating better than I would have if I were here six months ago? Absolutely.
And that starts to sum up the lessons of the past week for me, which are really the lessons that are the culmination of an experience that’s been going on for three or four weeks now. » Read more: Weekly Weigh-In: Everything’s Bigger in Texas?
One rather unexpected, yet extremely positive, side effect of my efforts to reconstruct my life, and particularly my health, at thirty, has been a passion that I’m developing for promoting healthier eating and living, particularly among the nation’s youth. As a nation, we’ve got to stop ignoring food as a major contributor to our health outcomes, and realize that we really are what we eat! Trash in, trash out. It seems that a groundswell is building to begin seriously taking on these problems in a meaningful way. Just a few weeks ago, we learned that First Lady Michelle Obama was making childhood obesity a keystone platform of her tenure. This week, we received what is truly a National Nutrition Month® gift from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest Productions – the ABC series Food Revolution.
I truly want you to watch this show. Truly. ABC has put the first episode on Hulu, and I’ve embedded a link to the hulu video below (this video totally belongs to ABC, Ryan Seacrest Productions, Hulu, etc., and is totally here at their mercy. I’m just embedding the Hulu version here pursuant to what Hulu allows in terms of sharing because I think this show is incredible, and I want you to watch it on ABC, visit the show’s various websites, and support this amazing program so it sticks around!).
Jamie’s passion, compassion, and genuine concern is so evident in this program. He doesn’t think obese people are ignorant, stupid, or dumb. He truly understands that we have to change our culture to change our collective eating habits, and our individual lives. He’s beginning in Huntington, West Virginia, where he’s taking on families, restaurants, and perhaps most importantly (and entertainingly), a school cafeteria, where he uncovers the bureaucratic struggles that go into transforming school lunches in the United States, and the need to update our nutritional standards and norms. You can also sign a petition that Jamie is pulling together as part of his efforts to take these issues to the President and First Lady for support by clicking on this link.
Kudos to Jamie, who is the star of the show, but also to producer Ryan Seacrest and Ryan Seacrest Productions, for having the courage to take on these issues. In the random ramblings category, Ryan Seacrest grew up only a few miles from me in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, and the local press has shown more than a few pictures of him as an overweight teenager. I guess that’s part of why I personally have always found him pretty easy to relate to, and I’m very proud to see a formerly overweight kid from my part of the world doing well career-wise and making efforts to address our growing crisis of obesity. There was a sneak peek of the first episode last night (but it was interrupted by an ABC News Special Report on the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill here in the east), and it slides into its regular Friday evening time slot on ABC later this week. Hope you enjoy!
This morning was my weekly weigh-in, and I lost half a pound from last Saturday’s weight, putting me at 38 pounds lost since I began this endeavor on October 31, 2009! That’s a great loss (it’s a toddler, for goodness sake!), and I’m glad that I did move the scale down this week instead of moving it up, or not moving it at all. But I have this pesky habit of weighing myself each and every morning, so I know that just a few days ago, I was 2 pounds lighter than I was today, and I was 1 pound heavier this morning than I was just yesterday!
Running, by Petr Kratochvil, Image in the Public Domain
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’ve written before on how exercise is my biggest challenge on this weight loss journey. After two months of changing my eating habits, I decided it was time to add exercise into the mix this past January. My first session with a trainer was on January 2, and I’ve been working out according to her instructions since. This Saturday will mark visit number two to the trainer, and I’m actually kind of excited. This excitement, in and of itself, is monumental.
When I started with the trainer six weeks ago, I hated exercise. Loathed it. Truly. In early January, I would have rather had double root canals than walk on my treadmill for 45 minutes. At least with the root canals, I’d get to sit down and have some happy medicine. Six weeks later, I still don’t love exercise, but I am starting to enjoy it. Cardio has its own built in happiness medicine in the form of endorphins, I’ve learned. I’ve worked my way up to 300 crunches during my strength training sessions (despite my initial reaction of “Holy Crap – you’ve gotta be frikkin’ kidding me?!?!” when the trainer suggested I target this number), » Read more: My Changing Relationship with Exercise
This morning was my weekly weigh-in, and I was a little hesitant to jump on the scales. This week kept me busy at work (and this week unfortunately includes this weekend as I’m still working on a project at home today with a Monday deadline), and my schedule was thrown off for a few days. Instead of brown-baggin’ it like I usually do, I ended up having lunch in the little cafe, and I use that term loosely, in my building. The pre-packaged sandwiches there are somewhat akin to gas station fare or the ones you find in those little carousel automat machines in hospital corridors and basements of college libraries, but they got me through the day. And then I got home too late and exhausted to jump on the treadmill on one of the days I was scheduled for it this week. Finally, to top off a week that felt totally out of balance for me, I had dinner with a friend at a wine bar last night and had a glass of red wine called Layer Cake Primitivo. Get out. When the server brought us a splash of this featured wine and told us it was called layer cake, I couldn’t resist – it subbed for my dessert and made me feel like I was cheating. » Read more: Defying Logic
When we’re kids, we’re very in tune with what our bodies are telling us. Time to eat, time to stop eating, don’t do that because it hurts, don’t put that in your mouth because it tastes bad, etc. Over time, though, at least for those of us who struggle with weight, it’s like the lines of communication between body and mind are cut. We eat when we’re hungry and when we’re not, we eat until we’re full and then keep going, and we forget that underneath the layer of adipose tissue that separates us from the outside world there are actual muscles chomping at the bit to do something! We know in our minds (and our bodies told us at some point, too) that we need exercise and that food is fuel, but somehow we’ve learned to ignore those signals over time.
It’s kind of like drinking coffee or beer, or eating raw oysters or blue cheese (the latter of which I still can do only in extreme moderation) – these are acquired tastes for most people. You have to ignore the signals your body initially sends you in order to learn to like these things. Obesity is, in some sense at least, an acquired taste, as well. » Read more: Body and Mind – Together Again
Today I discovered a fantastic motivational tool for exercise – getting flat-out, downright, no messin’ around, totally good and ANGRY with your body!!! Just take on all those years of eating high-fat, high-calorie, low nutritional value foods while ignoring exercise, by working out like a crazy person. Make a playlist of aggressive, fast-paced, no holds barred music on your iPhone (I highly recommend that Alien Ant Farm’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” be in there somewhere), and then grunt, groan, scream,and sweat your way through your strength training routine, followed immediately by your cardio (doing both on the same day has been a great choice for me – it makes the cardio not nearly as painful, and the strength training not nearly as soreness-provoking). Man does it feel good to know that this hard work is a fight against the weight that’s holding you back from being as healthy, energetic, youthful, and vibrant as you could! » Read more: Going to Battle!!!
Turning thirty this past October didn’t really feel like an existential crisis for me. The age didn’t bother me, and I didn’t magically feel older just by passing that day on the calendar. But (there’s always a but, right?), I did begin to realize that as the song says, “Time keeps on slippin’ [slippin', slippin'] into the future,” and there was no time like the present for me to make some changes I’d been putting off for far too long. Nutrition, exercise, living more healthily and without regrets – suddenly all those things became my priorities.
So began this project of reconstructing much of my life at the ripe old age of thirty. Losing weight, getting fit, and living life to its fullest has become my mission. As I write today, I’m a little over two months in, and it’s been hard work, at times frustrating, at other times rewarding, and more than a little entertaining. Come back often to check my progress, laugh (with me and at me), learn, and realize that all of us trying to change our lifestyles are in the same boat.
Just an average guy – transforming his life at thirty… Reconstructing 30
I'm Chad, and I really am reconstructing my life at 30. I'm taking charge and creating what my life will be as I plow into my 30's at breakneck speed! The main focus of my transformation is losing weight and getting healthy by changing my lifestyle with nutrition and exercise. But I'm also pursuing my passions, looking for love, and trying to have some fun along the way.
