Bill’s Reals Blog - Scuba, Travel & Gadgets

This weekend was TOUGH on me. I didn’t have a cheat day, I had a cheat weekend.

My wife and I went to a fund raiser on Friday at a bar, an Irish bar, with Guinness and I love me some Guinness. I sucked down beers, ate slices of pizza and sang Irish songs like a frat boy. And no, I don’t get workout credit for singing or lifting pint glasses. The only upside is that Guinness Stout is a good beer and lower in alcohol and calories than Coors or Bud.

On Saturday, my wife was competing in the Guacamole Bowl, which is a fund raiser for the Special Olympics. I ate guacamole and salty tortilla chips for two hours, it was good.

Later that day, we went to another fund raiser for homeless/runaway teens which was in yet another bar. What is it with fund-raisers and bars? I drank a couple of vodka tonics and ate really bad bar food and tried not to think about my diet. I got horrible heart burn, ya think, later that night.
On Sunday, my wife and I did a couple of chores, watched our Netflix queue of movies and I, again, ate like crap.

I have to be good this week, I have to be good this week, I have to be good this week because next Saturday is St. Patrick’s day.

I’ve gone from 196 to 182 (14 pounds) since Jan 1st. I have yet to get my fat content rechecked but at the beginning of the year, it was in the 30 percentile range. I’m assuming that it’s lower now until next week when I get it checked. My current target weight is still in the 170ish range.

How I’ve accomplished this so far:

• 1700 calories a day, spread over 5 meals
• Work out with personal trainer 3x a week from 7am to 8am before the work day starts
• Walk my dogs the other two mornings before work
• Daily 30 min, “Nintendo Wii Workout“
• One “cheat day” on the weekends where I can eat/drink anything that I want to
• Do something active on the weekends, like scuba diving or hiking.

I guess the Wii might be working after all as I’m still working towards my goal of 170 by summer. I didn’t think that my weight would drop this weekend, as I spent the weekend at my In-laws in Warner Springs, where I gorged myself on food and wine.

Sticking to the diet is still a struggle, especially at work where they stock the cupboards with snacks from Trader Joe’s and order fat lunches most days. I was teased that I would gain 30 pounds this tax season but my goal is actually the opposite, to lose 30 pounds instead and I’m half way to my goal.

I’ve plateaued in my current fitness goal of losing 30 pounds. This happens, the body adjusts and in some cases begins building heavy, dense muscle while removing fat and you end up staying the same weight.

There are only two things you can do, eat less or increase your energy consumption, i.e. workout more. Since I’m only on 1700 kcals a day, I really don’t have much room to move the needle on the intake side, so I need to increase my activity.

So in addition to working out 3 days a week and scuba diving every Saturday, I’m walking the dogs two days a week before I go to work.

In addition, I scored a Nintendo Wii and will be playing Wii Sports for 30 mins a day. Since you need to use your whole body, like say in boxing, it raises your heart rate and gets you off the couch.

We will see how this goes, I might need to start running..ehhh…on the days where I’m not working out with my trainer.

As with any diet, you’ll only stick to it as long as you understand that you can’t be perfect every single day. I’m on 1700 kcals a day but my trick is that I only follow it 6 days a week which give me 1 day out of the week to include “cheat day”.

On my once a week cheat day, I’m allowed to splurge on my favorite foods and eat or drink whatever I want. The cheat day is important and a necessary pressure release, as long as your behave yourself the other 6 days.

Typically, my cheat day is Friday or Saturday, because that is when my wife and I want to go out to eat or indulge in some wine. I still try and pick healthy choices but I don’t restrict any food that I might want.

I’m approx 10 lbs, peak weight was 196, into my overall goal and hitting 170 by summer. I’m still on the 1700 kcals a day, spread over 3 meals and two snacks with tons of water. I work out 3 days a week and walk my dogs the other two days each morning. This way I’m doing something active every morning before work which is the only time of day I can control.

The hunger issue is slowly going away but it’s been really tough to give up just eating whatever I wanted.

About 4 years ago while on a snowboarding trip in Mammoth, I had an moment of clarity and realized that I was not longer in the best shape of my life. I was tired after only a couple of hours of snowboarding. On the way down, I made a promise to myself that I would change all that and really get in shape.

I started going to the gym and reading magazines, books, videos, etc and after a month, the results were none except for giving myself plantar fasciitis, aka “Runners Heel”.

At that time, I decided that I need to get some professional help, so I found a personal trainer. So 3 times a week before work, he kicked my ass into shape. I dropped my body fat to around 10% and was generally looking good and I kept this up for almost two years.

The downside, it was as expensive. So I dropped my personal trainer and started doing it myself.

Two years later, I weight 196 lbs, 30 more pounds than I’ve EVER weighted in my life. I let myself slide and was starting to get back -pain, not dealing with stress well and generally disgusted with my personal level of fitness.

So on New Year’s Eve, I get a call from my old trainer, Markshane; who taking a book out of Marketing 101 was calling old clients and seeing if they wanted to come back. I jumped at the idea, and signed back up with Shape Up Studio after he showed me my old photos and I was shocked at my former appearance.

This time, it’s worth the expense, my body is way more important than a car or newest clothes or gadgets.

I’m going to chronicle my progress on the site.