Health: Riding the Wave

First, let me update you on how I'm doing. I've been working out since I first started this blog. I'm 200lbs, I can run 3 miles non-stop in under half an hour, I can finally bench my weight, and I'm looking a lot better. My pants are fitting much better if not a little loose. My shirts are fitting more tight in the shoulders and arms, but not in the waist. I'm still going for being fit for cardio, but to loose fat faster I've been building muscle a little more than I originally planned.

Now that I have built up some muscle, I will cut back on weights. I will still do them, but not as heavy. And I'll be doing much more cardio, endurance, and fat burning. This has a little to do with my workout partner pulling a muscle in his chest because he was doing something a little wrong.

So, at this point, I'm riding the wave. Let me explain what this means to me. Waves can be created by a sudden movement. I would call the first week of working out as a sudden change or movement. If you do it right, a wave of fitness starts. You start to feel better, you start to eat right, you start to change your life toward feeling better and eating right, and before you know it, you are riding the wave.

Waves don't last forever, and they die down into ripples. That's when you create a new wave. Mix it up and try something totally different that you could never had done before you started working out. This puts you to the next level of starting another wave.

Finding something you like doing that requires this level of body fitness keeps you going. Once you've gone there, you can hold onto that level, and choose when you want to step it up. Most people I know who start getting fit then join a soccer league or something like that, continue with fitness because they enjoy where they are so much. If you just work out and continue to do the same things you always did, in my experience, you tend to fall back into old habits.

So, get fit, start eating right and get healthy, then find something to do that keeps you going at that fitness level.

Happy Mother's day, and I'll write something else soon.

Diets, an Excuse to Fail

I had a birthday party to go to Monday, so I wasn't able to work out. Of course it was a youngsters birthday party, so lots of junk food and snacks. It's pretty easy to eat wrong.

So, everyone says "You can cheat once in a while, and it's a good thing." I say... cheating is never good. But why give yourself that option. And I'm not talking about not going to a birthday party or being around that food. I'm taking about even thinking of it as cheating. Cheating eludes to doing something wrong. You are a big boy/girl, you can eat what you want.

I understand sticking to a (dreaded word) Diet.... DUH DUH DUUUUUUUH!!! or how ever you spell that sound usually heard in a horror flick. First though, I'll tell you what I think a diet is. It's what you eat. If you eat, that's your diet. If you eat a type of food, you are choosing a life style. Just how I like to look at it.

And here's why I like to look at it this way. If you "Cheat" on a "Diet" you feel "Guilty". If you feel "... ok enough quotes... If you feel guilty, you tend to just say "F" this it's too hard.

Hey if guilt works for you, fine. But it doesn't work for me. And honestly I don't think it works as well for others like they think it does. Eating right is all about feeling better. Yes, if you're healthy you feel better usually right? So why put up this rule that could make you feel bad, when you don't have to?

I don't like diets as people think of the word. Giving yourself a chance to fail is not a great start to being more healthy. They also are temporary by nature. So when you go off your diet, you go back to what... eating unhealthy? Eating too much?

I pick my meals, I keep my health in mind, and it seems to work great... without the guilt!