The Basics of My Fitness Journey

Many, many people would love a "quick" fix for weight loss.  You may want to just stop reading now.  That is not what I am about.  I am about getting the weight off and KEEPING the weight off so that I may live a long life.

15 months time - not a quick fix

If you are just starting out and you are overwhelmed with how to get started, I offer these simple suggestions.

1)  Track your food.   What is going into your mouth?  I personally use the Fitbit app and it works fantastic for me.  But another really popular and free app is My Fitness Pal.  Both of these apps have a huge database of foods and they both have a feature where you can scan the UPS code of the item and it will log your food that way.

Tracking your food can be eye-opening.  Perhaps you think you are only taking in 1500 calories a day, but once you begin tracking you see that you are really taking in 2000 calories a day.  Remember to track things such as "creamer" for your coffee or that handful of Goldfish you grabbed from the pantry.

Tracking my food in my Fitbit app.

2)  I'd invest in a Fitbit.  Sometimes you can get a great deal on e-bay or on Black Friday.  I would suggest a Fitbit that tracks your heartrate too.  I absolutely love my Fitbit.  I actually bought the Apple Watch last Christmas (because it tracks swimming), but went back to my Fitbit.  The newest Fitbit will track swimming, so I will upgrade to that one.  By way of my Fitbit app, I know how many calories I am expending in a day.

That was definitely an over-achiever day!

FINALLY if I know how many calories are going in and I know how many calories I am expending, I can see if I am on track to lose weight, maintain weight, or gain weight.  At the end of 7 days, if you have a deficit of 3500 calories, you are on track to lose one pound for that week.  The Fitbit allows you to put that in your "settings."  How much would you like your daily deficit to be?  Mine is set for a 500 calorie deficit a day so that in one week I am down 1 pound.  (See I told you I'm not about the quick fix.)

My goal at top; my actual for the week.
This is a weekly e-mail I send my trainer.
It's accountability.

These are the basics for starting out.  Exercise is always great.  When I first started, I went outside and walked the neighborhood.  My Fitbit counted my steps and I set step goals for myself.  This helped with the "calories expended."

Did you know you can undereat putting your body into starvation mode?  I had no idea but I was a 1000-1200 calorie a day girl for many years thinking that was what I needed to do to lose weight.  It was quite the opposite.

If you need an assist and you can afford Gold's Gym, they have a great program called NLP (Next Level Performance).  This program has a cost in addition to your membership, but in my opinion is well worth it.  There is a Facebook page for the NLP program in Clifton and there are numerous success stories posted there.  These are real people.  People who are my friends.  These are not stock photos.  The trainers there are great at helping with the nutrition coaching and the NLP classes are great for building strength and increasing your calories expended number.  It's a win/win.  Go see Paul Manzella if you are interested in checking it out.  You can usually try a week for free.

Next week, I'll post daily or almost daily and give you the "skinny" on what I do each day.  But these basics can help anyone get started.  I got super blessed to find a trainer that helps me figure out how many calories I should take in based on how many calories I am expending to reach a specific weight goal.  He has helped me from Day One (January 18, 2016) and still helps me today.  Thank you Ryan.

Food for Thought - It Starts with Me

Some days some things make me crazy.  When that happens, I tend NOT to write about it.  But something I read last night kind of summed up how I had been feeling.  So here goes.

A good friend's daughter experienced the loss of her husband; they were in their 20s with a new baby girl when disease took his life.  The grief that this young lady has allowed her "friends" to see is unimaginable.  It is through this young lady that I heard about the book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy.  She would post quotes from the book and I was intrigued.

Then recently one of my good high school friends lost her husband somewhat unexpectedly.  This particualr friend had a hell of an upbringing and had persevered and triumphed, so in my heart I knew she would eventually be okay, but my heart hurt for her.  I thought about the book Option B and I picked up two copies.  

I finished reading my copy last night and I have sent my friend a copy.  Let's just say if you have expereinced the loss of a loved one or if your friend has experienced a loss, this is a great book on how to handle the grief and the memory of the loved one.  

It is written by Sheryl Sandberg.  Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity.  "I want Dave," she cried.  Her friend replied, "Option A is not available," and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.

"We all live some form of Option B.  This book will help us all make the most of it."

Bracelet from great nephews -- an ALS fundraiser.

Last night as I was reading the final chapters I came across an incident that kind of sums up a lot of how I have been feeling.  The book is co-authored by Adam Grant.  The chapter is Failing and Learning at Work.

"When Adam was in graduate school, he was terrified of public speaking.  After his first interview for a teaching job, he was told that he would never make it in the classroom because he wouldn't command enough respect from hard-nosed business school students.  He began volunteering to give guest lectures.  He only had 1 hour to win over the students.  At the end of every lecture he handed out feedback forms asking how he could be more engaging and effective.  The comments were not fun to read.  BUT he did this consistently and he improved.  When he started teaching his own class he did the same thing and then he e-mailed the students the full set of comments.  He opened his next class with an analysis of the major themes in his students' comments.  A few years later, Adam became Wharton's top-rated professor."

Could you imagine if companies were open to this kind of feedback from their employees?  Accepting feedback is easier when you don't take it personally.  Being open to criticism means you get even more feedback, WHICH MAKES YOU BETTER!  The ability to listen to feedback is a sign of resilience, and some of those who do it best gained that strength in the hardest way possible.

My absolute favorite paragraph is this, "When companies fail, it's usually for reasons that almost everyone knows but almost no one has voiced.  When someone isn't making good decisions, few have the guts to tell that person, especially if that person is the boss."

If you own a company, are you meek enough to ask your employees for anonymous feedback on how things might be done better?   If you are the boss, do you just shoot down a suggestion as soon as it comes out of your employee's mouth?    

I know that some of my readers will think I am referring to a certain organization and other of my readers will think I'm referring to a different organization.  Yes both did cross my mind, but it starts with me.  I'm a boss.  Dave's a boss.  Are we willing to accept feedback in order to better ourselves and the business?   Meekness is a fruit of the spirit.  Are we demonstratig meekness? Food for thought for sure.