Day 21 Progress Log:
YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY! I MADE IT!! DAY 21! :laugh:
The new habits are mine...my precious...er... I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already! I've gone to bed early, eaten my 6 meals, and exercised 5 days a week for long enough to own the habits!
What I've learned:
1. Determination & Discipline are the keys to success: You have to want it (determination) and then you have to make a plan and stick with it every single day (discipline). That's all there is to it.
2. Rite of Passage: The first week is the hardest. I had bad sugar withdrawl headaches, but it paid off in the second week. By the third week, high energy was simply a way of life!
3. The Snowball Effect: I felt so good by the second week that I started doing more and more - going on walks, cleaning the house, etc. Feeling good and making progress snowballs into more activity. The caveat here is not to neglect your original goals - I was getting so wrapped up in using the elliptical, going on long walks, etc. that I wouldn't do my exercise bike until the evening. Hit your specific goals FIRST and then add on whatever you want!
4. DON'T QUIT if you're not perfect, or if you fail: I only hit my 9:00pm bedtime about 1/3 of the time, but overall I am going to bed several hours earlier than I normally do, which is extremely good progress. It's tempting to quit because I wasn't perfect or even perfect 90% of the time, but you have to recognize progress is progress. I WILL get better at it and I'm trying again for another 3 weeks to really nail the sleep habit down. Any progress is better than no progress because you're TRYING.
5. Start small & simple: I've discovered that the mind likes to hold onto small, simple ideas. If you can get your head wrapped around a simple habit, like riding the exercise bike for 10 minutes, then it's easy to do. If the task is too big for your current situation, you'll do it for a day or two and then fail. 9pm bedtime, following a specified diet plan, and pedaling for 10 minutes are all easy things to wrap my mind around. Small, simple habits increased over longer periods of time = consistency = success.
Secondly, the small habits grow into more complex habits. I went from using my 6-meals-a-day diet plan to developing a very specific shopping list and day plan to execute. If you had given me all of that material from the start, it would have simply been a long, difficult list to follow. Because I learned the principles over a few weeks and developed the more detailed system myself, I own it - I made it, it's mine, and I follow it because I know everything about it. It looks complex to other people because I have my evening prep listed, my morning prep listed, and the times that I'll be eating on a specific day listed, but since I started out small & simple, it grew to be more streamlined and I grew with it. I banged through my cooking this morning because I've been streamlining my small & simple cooking system and have been getting used to the routine for a few weeks now.
6. Adjust your plan as necessary: You will get better in some areas and you will struggle in others. I didn't do as well as I wanted as far as my bedtime goes, so I'm going to tackle that again for the next 3 weeks and really nail it down this time. I did even better in my exercising and have decided to increase it to two 15 minute sessions as well as going on regular walks during the week. The plan doesn't have to be laid in stone because we're not linear beings. We change and adapt slower and faster at different things. Allow yourself some flexibility if you fail or if you succeed!
The Bottom Line:
1. Determination & Discipline are all you need to succeed. Get committed to a simple idea (like "get healthy!"), choose a few simple and SPECIFIC habits that you can easily do every day even if you're tired, and make a plan to accomplish them. I chose a 9:00pm bedtime, 6 meals a day, and 10 minutes of pedaling on the exercise bike. I chose to do those for 3 weeks to acquire them as a habit and then keep them or improve upon them for the rest of my life. Those were easy ideas to get a grip on in my mind and ones that I could do even on my off days. And here it is, 3 weeks later, and I've had phenomenal success!
2. Be aware of 2 things: first, the first week will be the hardest - don't quit even when it gets hard. Second, do your goals FIRST before anything else because (1) interruptions will happen that will prevent you from doing them and (2) you will get super motivated at your success and want to do more - you simply have to make sure that you are doing your goals at minimum first.
3. Keep 2 more things in mind: first, don't quit if you're not perfect. Even if you're not making any progress, you are at least trying, which IS progress. Second, don't set your plans in stone - if you need to adjust more or less, do it. If you can't do a pushup and you want to get healthy, do a knee-pushup. Do 1/2 a pushup. Eventually you will get there. Let go of the concept of "I want it now" and overnight success - that's nothing but pure lies. Real success happens in daily consistency over long periods of time. Cramming doesn't work in school and it doesn't work in anything else, either. Doing it the small, simple, and steady way yields the best results without the stress.
I think that's pretty much it...you simply need to clearly define a simple new habit for your mind to get wrapped around and then make a plan to do it for 3 weeks (to acquire it as a habit) and then keep on it after that! It's not easy, but it's totally worth it! Put it first in your day and make it happen instead of making excuses. It's weird because these are just words...now that I've lived them I understand the meaning behind them. It's like reading "the apple tasted good", but if you've never had an apple you just have no idea what it really means other than what the words say. I can't wait for the next 3 weeks to start tomorrow and to keep improving on my new habits! I FEEL GREAT!!
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Hit the sack at 9:10pm, evening prep took a little longer than I thought. I am still adding more definition to my day plans; they're getting much more streamlined. I had everything prepped and cooking this morning in about 15 minutes! Mostly it's just watching the George Foreman grill to make sure my food cooks properly; I use that time to multi-task make a sandwich or whole-wheat wrap. Woke up at 5:50am per my wife's alarm (new job for her, early wakeup, yay!). I'm looking forward to getting my 9:00pm bedtime nailed down starting tonight - this is my new focus for the next 3 weeks. I really, really want to get my bedtime licked.
In other news - I'M DOWN TO 200 POUNDS!!! Last month I was at a whopping 220 pounds; when I got married 3 years ago I was only 170. I've gained 50 pounds in the last 3 years (hey, my wife comes from an Italian background and is an awesome cook, hehe). I tried eating better and got down to 215, which is when I started my new diet (er, healthy eating plan). I have dropped 5 pounds a week consistently for the last 3 weeks and now I'm down to 200 pounds! My biggest problem right now is that I've run out of belt holes on my belt - it's too loose now! I love it!
I'm increasing my exercise to 2 x 15 minutes a day. I'll do my PT in the morning, hop on the bike for 15 minutes, and then hit the bike for another 15 minutes in the late afternoon after school and work. I have TONS of energy to burn now and my legs are literally crying out to be used. In fact, my legs have gone from soft and flabby to rock hard. Well, almost haha - there's still some fat on them but I can feel the muscle getting tight - what a great feeling! I really wasn't expecting this much progress in only 3 weeks! My pants and belt are looser, my weight has dropped, and my energy is up!
I'm sticking with the diet plan for another 3 weeks before I start introducing my own meals. I'll be sticking with the same food for the most part but I'm going to throw in some variety as far as how I cook it. More grilling and adding in stir-frying. My goal is to get it up to a 2-week rotating menu and change the cooking style for the next "same" meal so that I don't get bored of it. I'm doing pretty well on the current one, but my wife wants even more variety and I think that's a good idea.
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Went on a shopping spree today to celebrate my accomplishment - got some new sneaks and some workout clothes! Biking in jeans is not as much fun as it sounds My friend told me about a new New Balance store in a plaza by the mall where they use a computer to determine the best shoe for you. They had a pad that you stepped on that determined where you put your weight and your arch and all that and then recommended some shoes based on that. My new shoes are heavenly. It's like walking on a cloud! Pretty cool stuff...saved me a good 30 minutes trying on different shoes, I was in and out in under 10!
I also picked up some workout clothes. I've never owned workout clothes aside from my gym clothes back in high school, so this was a new experience for me. I got a bunch of t-shirts on sale at Champs (5 for $20) and then a couple pairs of workout shorts and mesh shirts from Wal-mart. I stopped by Dick's Sporting Goods but their prices were crazy ($60 for workout pants? are you kidding me??). I did find a good jogging hoodie and plastic (nylon?) pants at Sports Authority. This will beat working out in my jeans, haha!
My next shopping trip will be when I hit 175 pounds, I'll buy myself some honest-to-goodness running shoes. I've got a friend who is going to take me to a store where they watch you run and recommend shoes based on how you move, so hopefully the hocus-pocus will do me some good I guess I really only have 25 pounds to go, I wasn't doing my math correctly earlier. If I keep losing 5 pounds a week, I should be there in the last week of May:
April 28 - 195 lbs
May 5 - 190 lbs
May 12 - 185 lbs
May 19 - 180 lbs
May 26 - 175 lbs
I've never tried to lose weight before and wasn't ever very heavy in the past, so I don't know if it will keep up like this, go faster, or go slower. Hopefully I'll be able to grab some new running shoes by the end of May tho
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Had a bit of a weird schedule today, so I skipped Meal #6, exercise (chafing, ow!), and I'm going to bed about 9:45pm tonight. My new shoes are great and I got some baby powder for my legs, thank heavens! Gotta drop the pounds on my legs so they don't rub and create a rash For my 15 minutes of exercise on the bike, I'll be giving my new road bike a test drive on the Manhatten Greenway after I pick it up tomorrow :thumbsup: Hopefully I still remember how to ride, it's been a few years!
I'm printing out some maps to my buddy's place and driving out with a fellow biker friend tomorrow. It's gonna be a fun, a little pre-class adventure. I'm planning on biking 2-3 times a week starting with short runs around the boonies here and the local greenways. After that we'll see.
Day 21, complete! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: