I titled this week's blog post "Just Kickin' It" because I feel like that is what we are doing here together. You are all either old friends or new friends but friends nonetheless. Along those same lines, I was able to take a night this week and hang out with those old college friends I mentioned in an earlier post. Some of the guys were involved in a state bowling competition so the central location in Indianapolis provided an opportunity to catch up on old times. More on that later.
Also this week, our nurse at school enacted a healthy challenge. This is not necessarily a competition, even though we are compiling scores, but more of a personal challenge to make healthy decisions each day. The challenges include things like; step count for the day, servings of fruits and vegetables, fresh air time, and others. Check out the picture to see how I did for the first week.
After taking the blog live last week, I spent a lot of time looking around for inspirational items or simple knowledge that I could share. After all, you don't just want to read about me. I actually opened the Moleskine I have been carrying around in my bag for quite some time and put it to some good use. Deciding to write this blog has brought an invigoration to my life that I am quite excited about.
Here are the things I have found so far in my research that I wanted to share. I went to the Runner's World website (because I like their shoe reviews) and ran across an article titled "A Weight Loss Manifesto." In this Article Amby Burfoot is discussing things he has learned while interviewing doctors at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Quite a bit of science is discussed in this short two page article, but a couple quotes caught me with a bit of laughter attached in the middle of a "duh" moment. Dr. Joseph S. Alpert, M. D. said, "You only have to exercise on the days that you eat." Wow! How much more true could that be. You put calories in...you have to get calories out. It's a simple equation. Eat more than you burn and you gain weight. Burn more than you eat and you lose weight. I just think it is hilarious how simply he explained it.
The second quote I took away from that article is from the author Amby Burfoot. He is trying to be simplistic in the things that must be done every day to maintain health. "Food. Feet. Water. Repeat." Again, how much more simple can you be? Yet, the knowledge contained in those four words is extraordinary. Occasionally, an author can cut away the fat (pun intended) and put down exactly what they want to say in just a few words. This is a prime example. I am thinking about creating a shirt with either these 4 simple words or graphics to represent them. If you read Burfoot's article, you might see my comment asking for permission to do so. He hasn't said yes or no...so I will take that as a yes by default. I'll let you know when I get the design done and maybe I will post it online so you can buy your own. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
As I said before, I was able to hang out with my friends this weekend. Yeah, we went out to the bar. Yeah, I had some fried shrimp, and a sandwich on Rye, and some fries. But, I stayed away from the beer and pop and went solely with clear alcohol with a couple of juice splashes in the shots I did not order. I didn't get out of control, didn't make a fool of myself, definitely didn't drive, and had quite a good time. I even found out that one of them is reading my blog and I hope he continues to do so.
However, it threw my body into a little bit of an unbalanced state. I know I held some water weight back after what I ate and drank. I decided, with a little input from my brother-in-law, to take a Monday weigh-in total rather than a Sunday. Big Difference! Sunday would have put me at almost a pound gained, but Monday put me at 287.7 lbs. Another 1.7 lbs down. Not as good as last week, but I'll take it. It's about small victories and that one day turn around was a small victory for me.
After a great night with friends, I came home to a pleasant surprise. My lovely wife had been researching healthy lunch ideas while I was away and I got to taste the tuna salad recipe she had tested out. It's Pretty good. We left out the celery and onions (and substituted celery salt for vege-sal), but it turned out pretty good. Hopefully the teacher's lounge doesn't mind the tuna salad smell. Hoping to help her find more of these. I'm going to post this one to my Re-Dan-imation Pinterest Board.
Until next week... "FOOD. FEET. WATER. REPEAT!!"
Just this morning, I was starting to look for a simple way to track a few health goals, and then boom - I saw your health challenge. This looks like it would work really well! I might steal the idea for my own use. :)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great progress!