Halfpounder’s Blog

Hi Everyone,

Let me just share a little bit about our Spring Break this year.  We drove to Southern California and spent most of our time on the beach.  It was so nice.  The weather was great and it felt so good to walk along the beach, smell the breeze, and listen to the waves roll in.  Without a doubt my favorite way to unwind and destress my life.  I loved every minute of it.

For a long time now, walking just hasn’t been getting my heart rate up to the level I need for good cardio.  I will look up my notes and share what it should be (there is a desired range for your pulse based on height, weight, resting heart rate, etc.) and give you an idea of where I am right now.  I suppose I should be happy that my health is improving and the same old exercise just doesn’t do me enough good anymore.

In the gym, on the treadmill, I can adjust the speed and the incline and find my desired work out rate.  When I’m outside it is harder to adjust.  I can walk faster and choose more challenging terrain, but I have my favorite beach and I’m not interested in changing locations when we are there.

So this trip I tried something new: I thought, “Why not jog a little bit?”  You must remember that my health and my body haven’t been any where near considering much more than a walk for a long time.  Even short walks used to be hard and stairs were nearly impossible.  Distance and stairs aren’t much of a restriction anymore and so this thought to jog was something that gave me pause.  I really thought to myself, “Why not?”

So I tried it.

It wasn’t so bad.  The first day I jogged about 7/10ths of a mile.  Not bad.  The second and third days at the beach I tried for just a little further. By our last day at the beach I jogged 1.57 miles!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  I was just a little winded and my legs, ankles and feet were tired, but I made it and didn’t feel like I was going to fall over dead.

I haven’t jogged since my junior year of gym class in high school (1973 — 37 years ago…).  I felt euphoric!  I couldn’t believe how far I had come in two years.  I am so grateful that I made the commitment to change.  My life is so different now.  I have more energy.  I feel better, and I do more things.  I walk more, climb stairs easier (rarely taking an elevator or escalator), ride my bike, lift weights and work with my personal trainer, and get off my couch and out of the house.  It feels great to get outside in the sunshine and fresh air.  (I’m feeling addicted to exercise… I know this because I get grumpy when something comes up and I can’t get out for my daily bike ride.)  I think I felt endorphins after my jog on the beach.  I must have felt them from time to time over the past two years, but they were unmistakable after my jog.  I felt tremendous.  I felt energized.  I felt almost invincible… like I could accomplish anything.

I guess what I really want to say today is: if I can do it–so can you.  I have changed my life and my health has improved.  I won’t deny that it hasn’t been hard.  And I still struggle with eating the right foods and getting my exercise in every day, but I have made changes.  I have taken off and am maintaining weight loss of 165 pounds.  Yes, I am fluctuating a little bit up and down on the scale, but I am keenly aware of what I need to do to make a difference.  I am more in control of the choices I am making, and I have felt the benefits of my efforts.

Don’t give up.  Make up your mind to improve your health and do it.  Your life will be blessed and your loved ones will benefit from how much better you feel and how much more active a participant you become in living.

Have a great week,

Kirk

It felt good to ride my bike Thursday evening. We have a favorite bike path from our house up the canyon and back. It takes my wife and I a little over an hour to make the round trip. We had company on our ride: my brother-in-law from Scottsdale was in town and he joined us. The canyon part of the trail runs along the Provo River and it makes for a very pleasant ride. I noticed the smells, watched the bugs and animals, and squinted to keep the cottonwood fluff from getting in my eyes. This was a trick because the breeze was blowing the fluff sideways, filling the air to the point that it resembled snow and left white piles of it on the sides of the bike path.

My orthopaedic surgeon suggested I ride my bike more instead of walking for awhile. He told me bike riding is the best exercise I can do for my knee while it is healing. So I am going to schedule time for a daily ride. Thursday was the first time I’ve pushed it since the procedure. I’ve ridden the bike around the block, but I haven’t tried going up the canyon. I was a little out of breath and tired when I got home, but stretching out the muscles through the exertion felt great. (And I didn’t cramp up afterwards.)

I got a good ride in last night too. We took the kids and I ended up taking my recumbent bike. The recumbent is a little harder on my knee, and I don’t seem to have as much torque up the hills, but I made it most of the way on our regular route. I started to cramp up a little last night (a real indicator of how hard I was working), but I took some medication and slept well. (So well in fact I slept in and missed my weight watcher weigh-in again!!!!!) This brings up an interesting debate: did I just happen to sleep in or was I avoiding the weigh-in?

As I’ve mentioned in the last few posts I have found the scale to be unfriendly. Mostly because I haven’t been as active since my knee was scoped, but also because I’ve been a little lax about journaling my food (because I haven’t been too careful about my food choices.) I’m really struggling with this. I’m beating myself up for gaining a few pounds and it is really frustrating me. I’ve almost let myself slip into the “why bother” attitude. I promise I won’t go there, but this whole process reminds me of how much our mental attitude plays into weight loss.

What I should be doing is looking in the mirror and celebrating the incredible weight loss I’ve had this last year. I’m mean, let’s face it, 170 pounds lost is no small accomplishment. Instead I am getting all worked up about gaining 10 pounds. I even know why… but I still can’t seem to push aside the anxiety and avoid the feelings of defeat and frustration.

Whenever I get these “out of control” frustrated feelings, I often think of the prayer adopted by many 12-step addition programs:

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.

- Original Author Unknown

So this week I will recommit. I will start by getting out on my bike every day. I will write down everything I eat—no matter what—and make an effort to carefully watch my food choices. I know I can turn this frustrating trend of weight gain around.

I read a very timely article by Jillian Michaels yesterday. It ties in perfectly with what I’ve been thinking about. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a fun weekend. If you have a little sunshine and blue skies today where you live, get out and fill your lungs with fresh air. Feel the sun on your face and be grateful for the health you enjoy—then walk, jog, ride a bike… do something. You’ll feel better and you will be one step closer to better health.

Kirk

Losing It with Jillian Michaels, Online Edition, Friday, June 26, 2009
by Jillian Michaels

Suffered a Setback? Here’s How to Get Back on the Wagon

It happens — you miss a few workouts and you feel like you’ve fallen off the weight-loss wagon. It’s tempting to mentally slap yourself around, right? (Or head for the fridge.) Before you start, I want to remind you of something: Being hard on yourself is the Old You.
The New You knows how to deal with setbacks and get back on the wagon. And after all, there are no mistakes, just learning experiences. Weight loss is a process — it takes time. You will encounter small failures — everyone does — but every pound you gain can be lost.
And if you miss a workout, it’s not the end of the world! Get to the gym the next day and continue to focus on your short-term goals. Just because you made bad choices today doesn’t mean you can’t start over tomorrow. New day? New beginning. And don’t you forget it!

JILLIAN’S TIP OF THE DAY

Rescue Me

When life throws you curveballs, you can dodge them or let them hit you right between the eyes. Sometimes, though, you don’t get a choice. For the moments when you can’t avoid them, create a “Rescue Me” list. What kinds of healthy activities make you feel better? How about enjoying a bubble bath, taking a walk, or getting a massage? The next time you’re staring down a crisis, reach for the “Rescue Me” list, not a bag of chips.

I want to start today’s post with an outstanding quote about motivation and doing:

“Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome.”

-Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.

Arthur Ashe was a dominant tennis player during his 12-year career between 1968 and 1979. He is considered one of the 21 greatest players in the game. I have never followed tennis, but I remember seeing Arthur Ashe play. He was the Tiger Woods of tennis in his day.

I like the quote because it reminds me that my journey towards good health is a day-by-day process. It’s likely I won’t remember the actual day I weigh in at my goal, but my guess is I will remember this two year journey for the rest of my life.   And once I arrive at my goal weight, my journey isn’t complete. As I have said before, this commitment to good health is for keeps. I won’t be finished until I am laid to rest for my big dirt nap.

Another well known phrase comes instantly to mind “The way to eat a whole elephant is one bite at a time,” and it is certainly appropriate (please forgive me, the whole “eat an elephant” thing is not intended as a pun.) If we think about how much we have to lose or how far we need to go to be more healthy it can be daunting. When I weighed 450 pounds and thought about losing weight I often thought, “why bother.”

Does your journey feel overwhelming? Trust me, you are not alone. As I’ve struggled this past week I have felt like giving up. I’ve been hungry and frustrated and have felt like my world turning upside down and inside out. Why not eat some of that stuffed pizza my son brought over last night? (which by the way I did—and it was ALMOST worth it. The only thing I have to justify now is whether what I ate last night is worth the weight gain I’ll certainly see on the scales—definitely not.) But I haven’t lost sight of my ultimate desire: I want to be more healthy and I know how to get there.

Don’t give up and don’t despair. Our journey towards good health is worth every sacrifice. Make good nutritional choices. Get up off your two-spot and move more. You’ll feel better and like Arthur Ashe suggests, the journey will be much more meaningful than the destination.

To follow up the article I shared yesterday about weight lifting, I read this next piece from Jillian Michaels. It gives very helpful ideas about how to make your exercise more effective.

Have a great day and phenomenal week. I’m going to drag my carcass into physical therapy today. I do not want a gimp knee the rest of my life.

Kirk

Shake It Up
By Jillian Michaels, Losing It with Jillian Michaels, Online
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Ever hear the expression “Nothing changes if nothing changes”? If you do the same resistance routine the same way week after week, the day will come when your body will have adapted to that particular workload. In terms of weight loss, that’s not a good thing. If your body isn’t challenged beyond its comfort zone, you won’t see continual results.

Mixing things up to prevent plateaus doesn’t take much. That’s why every two weeks, my program will challenge you in new ways. Varying the number of reps and sets will constantly surprise the body, which is one way to make sure your workout continues to push you forward.

Apart from changing the number of sets and reps per exercise, you can also change the way you perform a rep. During a weight-lifting exercise, your muscles contract in three distinctly different ways:

• When you lift the weight, your muscles contract positively, or concentrically.
• At the midpoint of the exercise, when you stop moving the weight but you’re still holding it, your muscles contract statically, or isometrically.
• When you lower the weight, your muscles contract negatively, or eccentrically.

You can adjust the way you do your reps by shifting the emphasis among the three forms of muscle contraction, which provide you with three ways to do almost anything in the weight room — and endless ways to switch around your routine to keep it fresh and motivating.

Jillian’s Tip for the Day

Good for the Body, Good for the Mind

We all know that change is good — and that holds true for fitness too! After all, challenging your muscles will help you reach your fitness goals. Varying your routine is also good for your mind! Doing the same thing over and over can get stale and dampen enthusiasm. A change in focus — however slight — will keep you coming back for more.

I’ve been thinking about nutrition today. It’s amazing how many ways there are to lose weight. For fun, put this address into your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diets

Almost 100 different diets are listed (and you can probably think of many more not on that list). I bet you can find several that you have tried. Speaking of your past weight loss attempts, how many of those diets worked for you? How many diets took the weight off and gave you the tools and discipline necessary to stay healthy?

It’s more than dieting, I’ve decided, that’s necessary to make the health changes we want in our lives. But even when we find a plan that “speaks to us,” or in other words, a diet that we can follow and find success with, how easy is it to make permanent change?

My guess is if you are like most, diets, just like the pounds you routinely see fluctuating your bathroom scale, come and go. A friend will tell you, “Try this!” You’ll read in a magazine about the latest celebrity tip for losing pounds and inches. You might even just pick up a previous effort and start over.

How many of you have ever made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight? Were you able to do it?

How many of you thought about summer vacation coming up and wanted to look better in your beach wear? Did you make it happen?

How many have wanted to look better for a high school reunion that’s coming up? How many are tired of how they look and feel—enough is enough?

I’ve played the yo-yo diet game many times. I’ll take off a few pounds, commit to eat better and then revert to old habits and put the weight back on. Maybe some of you could be members of the official “Yo-Yo Diet Club” too.

The following is an article from the Courier-Journal.com, Louisville, KY and Southern Indiana, dated January 22, 2009 (www.courier-journal.com/article/20090122/FEATURES03/901220316):

“Experts cite many reasons for weight regain, including:

• Relying on fad or crash diets that are too hard to stick to and that often make people feel deprived.
• Practicing bad habits, such as skipping meals, that set people up to overeat.
• Setting unrealistic weight-loss goals.
• Not having enough support.

There also are the everyday pressures of life that can get in the way of healthy eating and exercise, as well as the whole idea of changing one’s life temporarily to achieve weight loss.”

“When you go on a diet, it usually implies you’re going to go off a diet,” said Lexington, Ky., dietitian Maria Boosalis. “What I think we need to focus on, instead of going on and off a diet, is … what habits and what practices do we need to incorporate in our way of life to achieve and maintain a healthy and realistic weight for us?”

“But even when people try to adopt long-term changes, they often find it hard to maintain their new lifestyle because their own bodies work against them.”

“Dieting leads to regain, and that’s because we have an enormous amount of biology that is pushing us to maintain a particular weight,” said Randy Seeley, a professor and associate director of the University of Cincinnati’s Obesity Research Center.”

“Your brain monitors the amount of fat that you have in your body with the help of leptin and other hormones, Seeley said.”

“When you lose weight, the levels of the hormones change, and your brain reads that as, ” ‘By the way, I’m beginning to starve to death,’ and does things to your body to push you in the opposite direction, so it hunkers down, makes you burn less calories and makes you hungrier,” he said.”

“Your natural instincts tell you, ” ‘By the way, you need to go out and hunt and gather; don’t sit here in this cave,” and eventually, you gain the weight back, Seeley said.”

“The ability to have a willpower over this level of biology is very difficult,” he said.
Often, people wind up weight cycling — repeatedly losing and regaining anywhere from 5-10 pounds to 50 pounds or more, according to the federal Weight-control Information Network.”

I don’t know about you, but this information is rather depressing. It almost seems like, “Why bother?” You will try…your body will rebel…you will bounce right back to where you were…just give it up!

You can’t go there.

Yes, many people find it hard to take weight off and maintain improved health, but it is not impossible. I’ll bet you know someone who has dieted and is hanging in—they are successfully staying healthy after “completing” their diet.

So my challenge to you is this: don’t diet. Figure out what you need to do to change your health and then make it a part of your life. Follow this habit until you are very old and grey (then do it just a little bit longer….). Make the choice for better health the keystone of your life. Because how I see it…if you’re not healthy, what kind of life do you have anyway? Insurance companies won’t even cover you when your weight reaches critical mass (I know, I tried to get life insurance when I weighed 450 pounds and they wouldn’t even consider my application.)

My nutrition guideline for today is: plan your meals around a 33-33-33 balance. This balance includes about a 1/3 of your daily calories from protein, another 1/3 from healthy carbohydrates, and the last 1/3 from fruits and vegetables. For those quick in math you’ll notice I left off 1%. This is so you won’t ever feel deprived. Take that 1% and treat yourself to whatever you want—just remember moderation (you only get one percent) and one my favorite quote: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

In my Weight Watcher’s Meeting room is a great statement. I will end this posting with it: “You Can Do Hard Things !!!”

You can. You’ve done hard things in your life before and you can get healthy. Deep down you know and feel that being healthy will bring more happiness and an improved quality to your life. I wish this for us all.

Kirk

I was sent this in an email today and I had to share it… As you read it, and ponder the words when you are finished, think about your desire to be more healthy. Today, you make a difference.

“Today I Will Make A Difference”

“Today I will make a difference. I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of his thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.

I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.

I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It’s OK to stumble…I will get up. It’s OK to fail…I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.

I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my mate, children, and friends.”

“Today I will make a difference.”

Max Lucado

“There is no end of things in the heart.”

“Somebody once told me that. She said it came from a poem she believed in. She understood it to mean that if you took something to heart, really brought it inside those red velvet folds, then it would always be there for you. No matter what happened, it would be there waiting. She said this could mean a person, a place, a dream. A mission. Anything sacred. She told me that it is all connected in those secret folds. Always. It is all part of the same and will always be there, carrying the same beat as your heart.”     -Excerpt from Lost Light, Michael Connelly, Vision, 2004, p. 1

I read this today and thought about commitment. As I’ve mentioned before, to be successful in changing the quality of your life—and that is exactly what improving your health through nutrition and exercise will do—one must be willing to take a stand. You must decide to make whatever sacrifice is necessary for your life to change.

These changes are not easy. Like the message of the excerpt above, when the path of change becomes hard, there must be a reservoir from which to draw strength. Internalizing a commitment to change will help provide that strength. I try to imagine what it will be like to look in a mirror and see the new me. The picture I have in mind is a man with thin legs, a flat stomach, muscular arms, and a glow of health.

Is it hard to refuse a piece of cake? A cold soda? Fresh out-of-the-oven baked bread? A piece of candy? Yes, a little, but I want my goal more than temporary satisfaction. The prize of health and weight loss is a greater desire than eating things I know will impede my progress. Is it easy to get my walk or bike ride 6 to 7 days a week? It is hard getting to the gym and having my trainer show me how to burn fat, tear down muscles, and rebuild them again? Of course, but the picture in my mind of how my body will look and feel is dominant in my thoughts. It is becoming a part of “the folds of my heart.” To “always be there, carrying the same beat of my heart”—a part of the real me.

I want to be healthy. I must change whatever is happening in my life that makes me unhealthy. I must internalize it. I must make this desire for change be part of every breath and every heartbeat. It requires a willingness to submit to habits and a lifestyle that deliver health. Many people have said I am “driven” and have “determination.” Without this commitment I would not be successful.

I used to imagine what it would be like to not have supplemental oxygen… now I know. I have accomplished this part of my goal and it gives me great hope and strength towards accomplishing my ultimate goal of improved health and a reduction of more than half my weight.

I hope you have a strong image of how you want your life to change. It is a key for your success. I wish you all the best in your journey.

Kirk

I want to explore attitude today. I’m not talking about the kind of attitude my fifteen-year-old daughter and twelve-year-old son give me, I’m referring to the attitude or state of mind necessary to be successful at weight loss.

Desire is the key. If you want something badly enough you will find a way to get it. So what factors lead to my desire, and continue to drive me towards a long-term goal of sustained health?

As I mentioned earlier, the deaths of my two younger siblings both resulting from weight-related factors was a strong motivation. I’m the oldest of four children and my brother, eight years younger, and sister, fourteen years younger, died far to early. Neither of these siblings had ever married and at least they didn’t leave spouses and children behind—just grieving parents, two remaining siblings, and nieces and nephews and extended family who love and miss them very much.

Another big factor for me was the pain I was beginning to feel in my knees. My mom has always been a big woman and she had knee replacement surgery for both her knees. I watched her go through this and shuttered to think I would need the surgery too.

One month before I joined Weight Watchers and started my weight-loss journey, I was required to work on some computer equipment in a lab. For most of two days I crawled on my hands and knees under tables stringing wires and connecting hardware. For several days afterwards, I could barely walk. My knees let me know loud and clear that crawling while carrying around my bulk was not an option.

I reached a point in my life where I was finally motivated. I thought about how my life would be shortened if I didn’t do something to become healthy. My wife and I have grandchildren now, and I realized that I was going to miss a significant part of their lives if I continued to an early grave. I also realized how the quality of my life was diminished because I had a hard time getting around and required the use of supplemental oxygen twenty-four hours a day.

One humorous side note is the day I received the ultimatum from my insurance company. They told me, “Mr. Anderson we regret to inform you that you have reached your lifetime maximum of oxygen.” They were referring to a need for my physician to submit paperwork verifying my continued need for supplemental oxygen, but on first read, the notice was extremely funny. I looked deadpan at my wife and said, “Well honey, the insurance company told me it’s time to die.”

Since losing 147 pounds, and through consistent physical exercise and conditioning, my pulmonologist told me I breathe well enough without the supplemental tank. What a change this has made. I have been without the tank for two weeks, and although it is an adjustment, I have really enjoyed not being tethered. I still reach up to remove the canula when I need to blow my nose and I’m always grabbing for the tank that’s not there when I move from room to room. One annoying change is feeling like I haven’t got everything together when it’s time to leave the house in the morning. I feel like I’m forgetting something. I just look around and reassure myself that I am set and I don’t need to fill the tank before leaving.

Back to attitude: I want change in my life and I’m doing everything I can to make it happen. I’m staying on track with my diet. I’m meeting regularly with a trainer at Gold’s Gym, and I am getting at least 30 minutes of cardio nearly everyday. I’m just finishing up a challenge to complete the Idita-walk 2009. The Iditarod is an annual sled dog race in Alaska. The course is 1,049 miles long. The local Boy Scouts in Nome, Alaska started a great annual tradition by inviting people from all over the world to register and complete 1,049 minutes of walking during the period when the annual Iditarod Race is held (roughly February 1st through March 31st). I will finish my 1,049 minutes tomorrow—more than a month ahead of schedule.

I want better health. I will do what it takes. The changes have turned my life around. I feel better. My outlook is more optimistic and because of the profound change in my appearance (I’ve gone from a 66” waist in my jeans to a 50” waist, from size 8X in a tee-shirt to 2X), I am able to encourage other people to want change too.

I know it’s hard. I know it takes a huge commitment, but you can do it. The tools are there. Eat less than your body metabolizes. Be very careful to consume a healthy balanced diet, and get up off your backside and move. Walk to start and get a few minutes of cardio every day until you make exercise as much a habit in your day as eating and sleeping. You won’t regret it.

That’s enough for today. Good luck everyone, with whatever challenges you face. Get your head right and the rest of your body will soon follow.

Quote of the Day: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels!” Isnt’ that a great quote…it’s so true.

Kirk

One of the things I have learned during the last year is how important my thoughts are to my success.  For example, I can be eating along and think I’m feeling almost full, I’ve had enough, and I can push my plate away.  Or I can see the large portion on my plate and tell myself I better finish it.  And then even before I’ve finished the first plate, I will sometimes think about getting just a little more because it tastes so good.

The same thing happens from time to time when I look at a plate of something, boneless skinless chicken breast for example, and I carefully eye each piece deciding which one is biggest, because hey, I cooked the meal I deserve the best piece.  Or the biggest piece of cake, the largest bowl of ice cream, it goes on and on.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with eating enough to be satisfied, or only consuming what my body needs.  I have to have the biggest, nicest portion.  Weird.  There’s something wrong with that.  It’s almost like I will be deprived or won’t get enough if I don’t get the biggest nicest. (why doesn’t my brain say I can always come get a little more if I’m really that hungry…or a smaller portion would be plenty–all that my body needs)

It’s all about this mental game we play with weight loss and being in control of our appetites. The struggle with gaining control over what we eat, when we eat, and why we eat is waged mostly in our minds.

I’m trying really hard to eat smaller portions these days.  I’m finding if I eat less food and eat four or five times a day I do alot better than one, two or three huge meals when I’m pounding it down like the famine is nipping at my heel.  I need to cultivate a habit of eating enough to stave off the hunger pains–not push myself away from the table each meal feeling like I’ve finished a Thanksgiving feast.

It’s all about controlling your thoughts.  It’s about learning to be stronger than the cravings and urges your body says you need.  Yeah our bodies tell us we’re hungry and maybe we’re just thirsty. We can eat really fast and then a few minutes later we’ve over eaten.

So we need to pay attention to our body signals.  We need to drink when we’re thirsty and eat only when we are really hungry (or our stomach growls.)  We need to slow down and enjoy our food. Chew it thoroughly to help with digestion and put down the fork between bites.  But most importantly, we need to decide what we need, how we’re going to do it, and follow through.

Try serving yourself on a smaller plate.  Decide ahead of time what a realistic portion is–how much food you need–and only eat that amount. It’s hard to learn, but it is key to successful weight loss.

One last thing before I finish.  It ties in with the mental aspects of this posting.  I heard a poem about ten years ago that has helped me stay focused on my weight loss journey.  It has become one of my favorites:

You Can If You Think You Can!

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.

~ C. W. Longenecker ~

You can do it.

You can.

Do it !!

Kirk