As promised today's blog entry has the first "one month later" photo. Nothing too dramatic, but my commitment plan to this thing was to update photos and measurements at 30 days. That means I owe a profile shot in 6 days and new measurements in 8 days. If I'm trying to build follow-through, that means even in things I'm not thrilled about.
If you've been following, you know I haven't lost much weight yet. However, I do feel fitter and to a self-obsessed dude like me, I can see some progress in the photos. My face always seems to de-pork first and I can see hints of it. Again, I wish it was faster, but a real commitment makes the speed of change a little less important. What's the goofy cliche, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I feel like I've got thirty steps of my thousand miles.
Another good note at this point is that my awareness of the need to exercise and monitor my nutrition is more in the forefront of my mind. This part of my change is pretty fragile as evidenced by my fooddiary abandonment earlier this week, but it is changing. I wonder how long it takes to make it stick without this much effort. I feel a little bit like a recovering addict. You know, I have to decide each day that I will take care of myself today. One day at a time.
Nutrition update: Yesterday was a good win in this department. We had two mini-graduations in my department and the college had it's graduation as well. Each of these events has a food component and the emphasis isn't on healthy food, it's on social eating (funny how those don't seem to go together). I'm proud to say, I didn't indulge in any of the massive amounts of cake, chips and junk food floating around my department all day. I also went home and had a simple sandwich for lunch, ate a snack before the evening graduation, and stuck to one beer at the post graduation gathering.
My LiveStrong tracker said I met my calorie count and I'm sure it was close. I may have missed handful of chips somewhere, but I'm not 100% sure. All in all a good day full of challenges.
Fitness update: Another success on a very busy day... When I came home prior to evening graduation, I made time to run for 35 minutes on the treadmill. In past years, I would have used the hectic schedule as an excuse and blown it off. The exercise not only improved my health and mood, it creates room for the calories I want. I still need to more formally schedule this stuff and this week will be a good opportunity. After Monday, students and instructors are gone for a while, so my day at work becomes a bit more predictable. That makes it a good time to start hooking up with my trainer again. We are meeting on Friday.
Random blather: I'm still waiting to hear from Edgewood to see if they want me in their EdD cohort. Most days, I think I might turn it down and work back toward some more classroom career options. Last night is always the exception to thinking that way. About half of my colleagues get introduced at graduation as "Dr. so and so" and I have to admit, my ego doesn't like being "behind". Of course, ego is not a good reason to alter work/life balance for 3-4 years.
A friend at work is on an alumni board at a local college and she is sure they will have a doctoral option in 3 years. Waiting for that could be an option too. Anyway, this is only interesting to me, so I'll let it go... I think I could be happy with less education and more family time, triathlon time etc. too.
When you are a kid, they tell you that you can do anything you want, which is mostly true. They just don't tell you that you can't do everything you want. Making choices has never been my strength, I seem to want it all.
If you've been following, you know I haven't lost much weight yet. However, I do feel fitter and to a self-obsessed dude like me, I can see some progress in the photos. My face always seems to de-pork first and I can see hints of it. Again, I wish it was faster, but a real commitment makes the speed of change a little less important. What's the goofy cliche, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I feel like I've got thirty steps of my thousand miles.
Another good note at this point is that my awareness of the need to exercise and monitor my nutrition is more in the forefront of my mind. This part of my change is pretty fragile as evidenced by my fooddiary abandonment earlier this week, but it is changing. I wonder how long it takes to make it stick without this much effort. I feel a little bit like a recovering addict. You know, I have to decide each day that I will take care of myself today. One day at a time.
Nutrition update: Yesterday was a good win in this department. We had two mini-graduations in my department and the college had it's graduation as well. Each of these events has a food component and the emphasis isn't on healthy food, it's on social eating (funny how those don't seem to go together). I'm proud to say, I didn't indulge in any of the massive amounts of cake, chips and junk food floating around my department all day. I also went home and had a simple sandwich for lunch, ate a snack before the evening graduation, and stuck to one beer at the post graduation gathering.
My LiveStrong tracker said I met my calorie count and I'm sure it was close. I may have missed handful of chips somewhere, but I'm not 100% sure. All in all a good day full of challenges.
Fitness update: Another success on a very busy day... When I came home prior to evening graduation, I made time to run for 35 minutes on the treadmill. In past years, I would have used the hectic schedule as an excuse and blown it off. The exercise not only improved my health and mood, it creates room for the calories I want. I still need to more formally schedule this stuff and this week will be a good opportunity. After Monday, students and instructors are gone for a while, so my day at work becomes a bit more predictable. That makes it a good time to start hooking up with my trainer again. We are meeting on Friday.
Random blather: I'm still waiting to hear from Edgewood to see if they want me in their EdD cohort. Most days, I think I might turn it down and work back toward some more classroom career options. Last night is always the exception to thinking that way. About half of my colleagues get introduced at graduation as "Dr. so and so" and I have to admit, my ego doesn't like being "behind". Of course, ego is not a good reason to alter work/life balance for 3-4 years.
A friend at work is on an alumni board at a local college and she is sure they will have a doctoral option in 3 years. Waiting for that could be an option too. Anyway, this is only interesting to me, so I'll let it go... I think I could be happy with less education and more family time, triathlon time etc. too.
When you are a kid, they tell you that you can do anything you want, which is mostly true. They just don't tell you that you can't do everything you want. Making choices has never been my strength, I seem to want it all.
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