The Orracle: weight loss

Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts

Monday, August 27, 2012

Irontastic....

I had the pleasure of attending my first Ironman competition this weekend in Louisville, KY. I have so much to say yet am having a difficult time putting it to words.

To catch people up to speed that may not know Jeff, he was my coach during and after my 4 week stay at Hilton Head Health in 2011. I found a close bond with him on so many levels. We just 'clicked'.

When someone supports you as much as he has supported me, I could not turn down an opportunity to support him on what would be the biggest endurance challenge for him to date.

First, let's talk about Ironman competitions. There were more than 2500 participants yesterday, To take on a full Ironman which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and finishes up with a full marathon, you must prepare. Physically and mentally. You don't just decide one day to do an Ironman without having some experience in triathlons or even endurance events such as marathons under your belt. Or, maybe you do just decide to do it. Those were possibly the people I saw getting carted away on stretchers at the end of the race.

I was worried about Jeff. Nervous. The best athletes in the world break down on these events. Missing critical nutrition along the way or unforseen accidents and injuries are common. I know in my heart that Jeff is a top-notch athlete. But....STILL....this is a frigging 140.6 mile event. Oh, and it was forecasted to be 94° and humid!

The field of bikes in the transiton area was unbelievable to see. The line of participants that we strolled past to find Jeff was mind boggling. I was so happy that we found him and he was feeling good going in.

Away he went on the swim. We waited for him at the first transition. The atmosphere was electric. Competetors of all ages, shapes and sizes. Some were shapes that I could not believe I was seeing but I won't go there.

Then onto the bike. A gruelling 112 miles in hilly terrain. I heard stories today at breakfast of a ride that stopped to kiss his wife and was hit by another rider. These guys go 18-25 MPH so that collission had to be bad. Another rider dropped a bottle and it somehow hit his spokes of the front tire. He was launched and crashed badly. This is a very dangerous phase of the race.

After so many hours on the bike, you get to try your legs out on a 26.2 mile run. BRUTAL!

We saw Jeff at miles 1, 3, 14 and the finish. My nervousness for him waned as he always was cruising along and all smiles as he passed us.

I will let you read his blog which you can find here on this link as I am sure he will tell his side of the story and about his actual times. I don't want to steal his thunder on any of that.

I will talk about what I took away from this. No, I don't have any goals to be an Ironman. They would not fit within the SMART goals system which include the words ATTAINABLE and REALISTIC. At least not now. What I took away from the event was seeing someone go for a new level of achievement no differently than if you have never done a 5K and finally decide to get your butt off of the couch and just do it. From a goal perspective, they are no different. They require dedication and planning.

I also had my inner fire renewed to keep pushing myself. I have become very complacent lately. This is partly because I needed a break from such an intense focus of losing weight but also to show myself that I can maintain at a level and not gain even though I am not losing for a while. I managed to do that. Now, I have such a renewed vigor to get nasty in the gym and work harder than I have in the past 16 months.

I know Jeff appreciated us all being there. What he does not realize is what that event did for me as well. I am completely in awe and inspired by his achievement and success at the Ironman. I am so lucky to have a guy like Jeff in my life as well as the other H3 alumni that were there. You are all family to me. I never knew when I walked into Hilton Head Health that the connections and bonds I would make in those 4 weeks would have such a profound impact in me so long after my stay.

Congrats Jeff. You are an absolute IRONMAN both athletically and as a man, friend and mentor.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Still Lost?

I was out for a bike ride down here in Miramar, FL last week and as I cruised through a business park, I saw a guy in a delivery truck clearly lost. He was trying to find a business within a maze of buildings and offices. Furthermore, the roads are all names similarly like Commerce Way, Commerce Parkway, Commerce Drive, etc.

As a frequent business traveler, when I visit a new area, I am sure to bring my GPS with me. Most people have them either as portable units, in-dash units or on smartphones. It is cheap, accessible technology. How can a delivery truck not have this technology? It baffles me.

Similarly, as people navigate the complex pathways before them to get to a healthy weight or even maintain a health weight and lifestyle, you do not have to do this with blindfolds on. Besides the obstacles out in the real world to deal with, we all have to deal with the multi-billion dollar diet and weight loss industry which is clouded with sometimes ineffective information such as fad diets and schemes that those of us that fell to their lure in the past know are not long term solutions for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Much like people without a GPS to find their way in a car, it baffles me that people do not use the resources available to them to navigate this route!

Tools exist to take away that feeling of being lost or going in circles. Know your RMR! Go to a good calculator and figure it out! Use tools such as a Fitbit! Use online or smartphone tools like Calorieking and My Fitness Pal to track activity and intake.

If you need that support from a professional to help navigate the upcoming challenges, you might want to enroll in a coaching program such as H3@Home which is one that I have a very positive experience with.

Don't be lost. Find a set of effective tools and navigation devices to lead you to your goal.

You must have a good roadmap.

You must know where you are going or like the delivery driver, you sit and look around, lost.

Friday, May 11, 2012

A Big Buzz

It seems that the nation is becoming consumed with obesity. This is good. I can recall when I was at my unhealthiest and stories on being obese or overweight felt like a personal attack. Not in the story iteself but when someone around me talked about the story or the headline in my presence, I felt like they were indirectly speaking to me. When you know you have a problem but are not ready to confront it and take it on, any reference to it hits home even more.

Lately, it has been the buzz. In fact, I nearly titled this post, "A Big FAT Buzz" but it felt a little bit derrogatory to me.

This week and not coincidentally close to the debut of the HBO Documentary, "The Weight Of The Nation", a story was released with the obesity rates in the USA to all of the major news outlets. The story goes on about the obesity rate predicted to crescendo at 42% of Americans. I linked to it but you could not have been anywhere on the web this week without seeing that story.

Another story talks about the obesity rates being doubled globally since 1980. The Weight of the Nation

How do I feel about this now given the big changes in my life over th last year? Guarded, actually.

Will this be the real deal and share the right information or will it be heavily geared toward some political agenda? There is so much "information" available to people and yet so little of it really contributes to a solution. I don't want it to be just a crusade against sugar based drinks. Yes, they are bad. Yes, a good portion of the country is obese because they drink Coke and Mountain Dew. Is cracking down on the soda the problem or should they explain how the calories impact your body whether it is soda, cookies, a big mac or a banana?

I am hopeful that this series is working in the right direction. I guess we'll know in a week!

Friday, April 27, 2012

What An Industry!

It is estimated that the weight loss industry was worth $390 billion in 2010 and will be something in the area of $671 billion by 2015. The saying should be, "The only guarantees in life are death, taxes and being bombarded with information on how to lose weight!"

This week in USA Today, they posted some new books hitting the shelves. These are big books. Big money too. I looked over them and wonder what it could be that they write so much about.

I have lost weight and I don't think I would need much more than a chapter or two to go over what my silver-bullet secret is in depth. My "secret" was learned at H3.

I like to refer to Bob Wright at Hilton Head Health when I think about how to navigate all of the sure-fire solutions and diets out there. I call it my "Wright Wradar". In short, it just means to use a good common sense filter when considering some of these books and strategies out there.

I scanned the article from USA Today but it just did not turn out good, however that is not stopping me from posting them for some filler on this blog ;-)

Looking them over, the synopsis of each gives me some direction on which books I find to be a complete waste of money and which books might be just a long read with some OK information in them. The only one I would buy straight out is the book on the Volumetrics Diet. I prefer to not call it a diet because it is what I practice everyday at home. This is basically the concept of taking everyday meals and making the portions bigger by using other, low calorie ingredients (usually veggies) to bulk them up. In a nutshell, don't eat like a bird when you feel like you need to cut calories.

My thoughts based on the synopsis of each book is below. DISCLAIMER - I am truly judging these books by their cover and 2 sentence synopsis:

S.A.S.S. Yourself Thin - 4 meals a day with whole foods, and mandatory dark chocolate. Hmmmm....sounds like a long book to tell you to eat good veggies and treat yourself a little.
The Dash Diet - Pick foods you enjoy, don't set unrealistic goals, blah, blah, blah. Same book, different title. I have actually read the concept of this (Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension). It was wordy and complex. Just long enough and complex enough for people to say 'Forget it!". It does not need to be. Save your time and money.
The Starch Solution - Eat rice, starches, rice, corn, etc. Avoid fats and oils. This is a new one....the opposite of the Atkins essentially. I would be curious to see what the calories on this thing suggests. Either way, it is NOT sustainable long term much like Atkins and therefore just another gimmick diet, not a lifestyle change.
Ultimate Volumetrics Diet - Again, I prefer this one but just call it 'How to cook with volumetrics' and leave it at that!
The Blood Sugar Solution - A six week plan to reverse Type II Diabetes and obesity renamed as Diabesity avoiding processed food, blah, blah, blah regurgitated. Brilliant. Then what the heck are you supposed to eat after the 6 weeks? This guy says one of the the biggest mistake dieters make is counting calories. Uh, really? This guy is a chip off of the PT Barnum block!
Weight Loss Boss - Written by the CEO of Weight Watchers (intriguing). This does focus on habits you can maintain for life and not just 2 month period of deprivation. Did we need a book to tell us that?

Don't get suckered in here folks. Follow these rules at no charge and you still have the rest of the night to read a good book.

Know what your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) is. You can calculate this at the Hilton Head Health daily blog under nutrition.
Track your meals. Eat what you want, but be accountable for every calorie. I think the need to eat bigger meals will win out over just eating what you want.
Get 50 minutes of exercise 4-5 times a week doing exercises you enjoy. Exercise means 'increased heart rate'.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

There you have it! The SECRET IS OUT and I am not going to make a dime of that $671 billion. Oh well, maybe Al will give me a loan (had to do it....been a long time since he got a mention).

Sorry for the bad scans....you can probably find this article out on USA Today if you want to read it for yourself.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

One Year Later...

Today is a very special day for me. One year ago, I began the most amazing, life changing and body transforming journey. I thought today about how I felt as I went through that first day at Hilton Head Health.

First was the blood work. Bob threatened to use dull, dirty needles on me because he is a Braves fan and I am a Twins fan. He still is not quite over the 1991 World Series I guess. I liked him from the first meeting even as he poked me and delivered some bad news to me. My cholesterol was OK by number but the HDL was so low, he could not get a reading. All of my cholesterol was bad, LDL. My blood sugar revealed that I was a walking type II diabetic. I work in this data every day and knowing the number of comorbidities that accomodate diabetes, it was a dose of reality that really hurt. It reinforced why I was there yet was devastating news. Hopefully the damage was not too far along and I would get better.

I remember struggling to do pretty much anything fitness related as one might expect for someone nearing 400 pounds. The staff were all amazing though with their encouragement and faith that I would get stronger. Even riding my bike the 1.5 mile ride from my condo to H3 was hard and bring me to pant uncontrolled.

The days were long but the weeks were short. Before I knew it, I was on that flight to MSP with a renewed sense of drive and some goals set. Could this really be the solution to being overweight? Did they tell me the secrets that I had searched for?

It was so simple. It was too simple. I had tried everything! Body for Life challenges, Redux, Atkins, South Beach, and anything else that looked like it was the silver bullet.

I found an incredible bond with all of the employees at Hilton Head Health. From the instructors to the fitness team. You even gain bonds with the interns and culinary staff. They all play a key part in that well rounded recipe for success. While everyone was special, I found a bond with Jeff Ford that still exists today. A day does not pass where I don't think of him or some memory of being at H3 getting rowdy with him in treading or ultra-circuit. He became my @home coach and I consider him a great friend.

An unexpected connection was with the other guests while I was there. Many are still good friends and connections yet today.

So tonight as I ran 5 miles in celebration of a great year and went out for a nice light dinner with a certain 'Pals' of mine, I took pride that I was still eating healthy and still losing weight a year later...something I have never done before on any 'diet'. This is my life now. I can celebrate the good times and treat myself but always go looking back to the healthy meals. As my dinner companion tonight realized, the couple next to us were talking about how they were too full, and feeling like they could not move. We had a GREAT meal and felt like a million bucks. It is SO AWESOME to feel like this.

This trip would not have been as easy as it has been though if not for my friends from H3, trainers like Jeff, Karla, Adam and Amber and the tips from the culinary staff like Jen and Karla. This change would certainly not have been possible without great support from my immediate family and my extended family. They helped make my trip possible. I only want to make them proud. I also have to thank my coworkers from the guys I work with every day to the HR department and senior management that supported my leave of absence. I feel that I am 100x the employee I was a year ago.

I now look forward to this new year. I can only imagine how fantastic it will be. To the people that had the room next to me at the Oakland Hilton that put the note about my snoring keeping them awake all night and told me that I needed to get help. Well, I did. I found the best place on earth to get help! Anyone can do this. Just start today. Before you know it, a year will pass.

The last time we'll have to see all of this guy....March 2011

My Awesome Family After a 7K Race!

Andy and Jim with me before the start...looking ready to RUN!

Celebrating an awesome finish to the Get Lucky 7K with awesome coworkers!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Exclusive....Before and After Pictures at 8 Months!

If you are starting a journey this week with the ringing in of 2012 or part way through a journey much like I am, let these pictures show you how much you can really do in a short period of time. I am not done with my transformation. I have some pounds to lose still as you can see in the pictures. Still, looking at the difference of where I was in 2009, 2010 and early 2011 compared with today, I cannot help but be just a little bit proud of myself! More importantly, I want YOU to know that you can make small changes that over a short period of time (8 months) like I have that will in turn, make a MAJOR difference for YOU too!

I am excited to know where I will be on my 1 year anniversary of visiting Hilton Head Health on April 24.