I’ve written and rewritten this post in my head about a bazillion times. I didn’t know whether I should play the humor card, go for total shock factor, or go all research and stats up in here. I have a little bit of all three in my blog (not too many stats). I mean it’s not every day someone gets the chance to write a post for a platform like MizFitOnline right?  (MizFit note: I beg to differ. In fact, I begged Ryan to come over here and yammer. Im the honored one). Basically I’ve got one shot to convince thousands of readers to follow my blog too.

Guest posting is all about trading traffic and giving the little guy a leg up in the blogging game right? WRONG!

This is an opportunity but it’s not an opportunity to gain followers. It’s an opportunity for me to help more people. I take that very seriously and I’m not about to waste an opportunity like this one.

Thanks to Miz for giving me the chance.

Last July I weighed 400 pounds. I stepped on the scale today weighing 270. I didn’t use the Atkins Diet or South Beach or even Weight Watchers. In fact, I didn’t use a diet at all. I obviously changed what I ate but that wasn’t my secret. I started exercising every day but that wasn’t my secret either. My secret is something that gets overlooked every single day in weight loss.

The Science

Weight loss is a science, kind of. Here are some things that we know for sure about weight loss:
•    Every time we create a 3500 calorie deficit we lose a pound.
•    Muscle burns fat and increases our metabolism.
•    It’s hard

Wait! Is that last one a scientific fact? Losing weight is extremely hard but according to the text books all we need to do is lower our caloric intake and increase our caloric burn. The problem is that there’s a human element. Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions can’t be measured by any tool. They are real and they are always changing.

The Questions

Why is it so difficult? Why do we have trouble committing to eating right and working out? We all know that healthy diet and exercise is the key, but we’re willing to subject ourselves to a myriad of different diets because “This one is going to be different”. We all own cupboards full of exercise DVDs and have all the latest workout contraptions. Was it a bad idea for me to do the Cookie Diet, The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet, and use the Shake Weight all at the same time? Perhaps, but really it doesn’t matter. There are literally more opinions on weight loss than there are on religion.

The Solution

Do you want to know my secret now? It’s not a pill, a surgery, or the latest doodad from Suzanne Somers. It’s my mindset. I believe that I will be successful. I believe I can change.

Last July when I started on this weight loss journey I was in desperation mode. Chastisement from a doctor, being tired all the time, and fearing that my boys would be left without a father and my wife without a husband were all motivating factors in my weight loss. I knew I wanted to lose weight but I didn’t want any fads. I had successfully lost some weight before doing other diets but I didn’t want a diet (sidenote: I always gained the weight back). The word diet is so finite. It implies that at some point I’ll return to old habits or stop eating right altogether. I wanted to change for good. I wanted a do-over in life.

As I started losing weight I began to gain confidence in myself and my abilities. “I can’t” became “I will” and places inside that had been empty for so long began to fill up. Over the last 8 months I’ve continually been training myself to get rid of negative thought. The good news is that it’s working. I’m constantly seeking solutions rather than focusing on problems. I have an optimistic outlook on life and would love to see that switch flip inside of other people who may be struggling with weight loss or any aspect of their lives really.

The key to removing negative thought is awareness.

We need to know the words and emotions that trigger negative thought. This is obviously easier said than done, but it is possible. You can do it. 8 months ago I was just about at rock bottom and I am rising up every day.

In order to help us eliminate negative thinking for good I started Spring Cleaning at No More Bacon.

Every day in the month of March I am going to post words that will impede our success and give suggestions for how to combat them. It’s going incredibly well so far and the feedback seems to be overwhelmingly positive.

Believe in yourself sounds so cliché but it is imperative. Master the mind and the body will follow.

(Look at me! I’m both immature and a horrible photog. My skillz know no bounds.)

This friday morning (serious morning. 5am morning.) Im heading to Fitbloggin!

While there Ill be running a 5k, speaking about Blogs & Body Image, chatting about the Power of Social Media in Goal Achievement, & sharing some wizdom via MizFit’s Muscle in Minutes.

Now, since I arrive early Friday and (to my chagrin) depart early Sunday, I want to be sure I dont miss meeting up with/connecting with any of you.

Hence the roll call.

Are you coming?

Are you arriving early?

Wanna share a shuttle to the hotel (I get in at 11ish)?

Anything else Fitbloggin-related you wanna ask or share?

please to hit us all up in the comments.

The title: It’s all in your head.

The topic: Your questions which all have one similar focus: games our minds can play with us.

As always we’d love your feedback post-listening.

Chime in via email, comment or twitter & share your thoughts & experiences.

Let us know if we touched briefly upon a topic you’d love to hear more about.

Remember, this is your podcast—-DietGirl & I are merely the bumbling stammering lovely Masters of Ceremonies.

(click the image below to download)

Edited to say: Yes Ive totally lost my mind.  Look what I got.  To me nothing is official until it has its own tee…

How did my back feel at the end of and during the thirty days?

Does one look awkward when strolling in the shoes?

All these queries and more are answered below.

Please to enjoy especially the part where there are sirens in the background which are louder than the proverbial mo’fo.

Is this thing on?

(Why do I feel like Sid the Science Kid?)

If it is:

Just a heads up that I will be on Dr Fitness & the Fat Guy show this week.

Thursday at 11a central.

Have a question you’d want the guys to pose to me?

(I know you do judging by my inbox. Now is not the time to be shy with those bodyglidedidyoupeeduringtheracedidthetutuchafe queries!)

Please to hit me/them up in the comments or @fatguy on twitter.

The collective you.

The you I was fortunate enough to meet & connect with last weekend who asked me about all this.

The greater you who fill my in-box & twitter stream (which I adore) with your questions about health, fitness, tattoos, and more.

Lately Ive been asked variations on the questions below a *bunch*:

I’m ready to change my eating habits and don’t want to do a diet (I’ve done ww before and jenny craig and south beach).  I want to try and eat intuitively which I know you do. What can I do starting now?  Please don’t tell me to read a book Im so busy.  What’s the first step in your opinion?

(I chose this specific email because it said “in your opinion.” My apologies to the rest of the emailers/peeps I met in Orlando but it saved me the dizclaimer yammer.)

Another reason I chose this email is because of the ‘what can I do starting now’ piece.

We all know how easy it is to do the “starting Monday I shall” or “on the first of the month I will…” & yet we all know (deep in our hearts. where it counts.) that it really is all about starting right.this.moment.

So I give you what I did.

What I DO.

When I had my AH HA! moment & finally decided the time had come to shed my freshwoman forty I followed about six steps & they’re the same type of thing I still do on a daily basis.

When I finally decided the time had come to shed my freshwoman forty I had no acronym with which to remember it all.

I give you an acronym good lord I love me some acronyms.

To use.

STARTING TODAY.

Mini-meals. Im a believer in spreading my calories throughout the day. For the most part none of my meals are bigger than any other ( I do find at times I eat more at breakfast out of hunger. Intuitively.)  Beyond the fact I think this helps me stay lean—-it definitely helps my blood sugar levels stay even. I have far more energy now and am less moody.

Intuitive eating. Start this one today. Slowly. Listen to what your body is saying. Pay attention to how you feel after eating certain foods. JOURNAL.  For me this isn’t journaling *caloric intake* but feelings.  Noting how, when I crave sweets, it’s mainly AFTER Ive had a high processed carbohydrate meal.

That sort of thing.  Perhaps you begin by not even CHANGING your foods—just logging your body’s reaction to them.

It changed my life when I spent a week NOT CHANGING my eating but merely writing how I felt after each meal & snack (satiated? triggered to crave sugars? bloated? cranky? still famished?).  It taught me to how to be the expert of my own body.

Zero HARD & FAST RULES.    Again, this is just what has always work for me. Im a rebel. Make a rule that I can not have or do something & it is immediately the ONLY THING I THINK ABOUT.

Fiber, Fiber, Fiber. At this point I think we all know why (want more info? still unclear? desire a list of fiberfoods? please to let me know in the comments.)—be sure you both KNOW and are acting on it.

Invest in YOU.  For me this takes the form of spending lots of money on quality foods & less money on (quality) clothing.  I love me some sushi grade tuna. Im happy with clothing from Goodwill type places.

For some this may be an investment in a personal trainer.  For others in a gym membership. I have more than a few non-wealthy friends who invested in cooking lessons in their homes so that they could learn a handful of easy healthy meals.  You are worth it.  Even if it means you save for what feels like eons to experience your chosen decadent treat (Hello crappy economy!) — make an effort to pamper yourself as much as you can.

Which leads me to…

Tried & trues. Have a few meals which you know you enjoy, which are healthy, &  which are easily prepared in your arsenal. I tend to have the T & T’s already prepared and waiting in the fridge for those moments Im too tired to cook. Other people prefer just to have ingredients on hand.

Whatever *you* decide Im a firm believer in the fact that these T & T’s help to set us up for food success.

That’s me, People.

M.I.Z.F.I.T

What I did starting out and what I do today.

When Im feeling completely scattered, out of my element and CRAZED I figure if I can stick to these six things Ill re-find my groove in no time.

Now you.

What would you tell the people who ask:

What’s the one thing I can do, starting today, to clean up/change my eating habits?

please to hit us all up in the comments.

Please to welcome Susan & her new blog.

I enjoy them both & know you will as well.

I’m certainly not the first person to point out the many connections between weight loss/fitness and decluttering/organizing, but it’s been hitting me on such a personal level lately.

A year ago, I was diagnosed with type2 Diabetes and made the decision to lose weight and get fit and healthy. I’ve come a long way and feel good about that (you can read about it all on my blog ).

But then I woke up, all fit and healthy, and looked around my house. I was aghast! At all the clutter and piles and MESS.

I was determined to tackle this issue with the same determination that I did with my health. I started a new blog, http://www.clutterbrained.wordpress.com, in the hopes of finding a decluttering community.

It took me a very long while for my healthy bodily habits to become ingrained and “automatic.” And I am suspecting it will take an equally long while (if not longer) to become an “automatically” organized person. If ever.

Here are a few things I’ve observed that are true in both cases.

Procrastination is the devil.

How many times did I used to say, “I’ll go to the Farmers’ Market… later,” or “I’ll go to the gym… later,” or whatever? And “later” stretched into never. I realize that I am the same way about picking up random crap in my house.

I always tell myself, “I’ll do it LATER.” But later, the pile always grows, it always gets bigger, stuff gets lost more easily, and it’s just a hundred times more awful and messy to deal with it later. Same with being overweight. The longer you wait, the more there is to deal with.

Under/overestimating messes us up.

They say that people consistently overestimate the amount of activity/exercise they do, and they consistently underestimate the amount of food they eat. No surprise!

And the same is true with clutter, especially the invisible kind of clutter (time). When I didn’t “count” what Weight Watchers calls BLTs (”bites, licks and tastes”), I was surprised when I gained weight. When I don’t put down EVERYthing on my calendar/planner, I am constantly shocked when I run out of time to do the things I want to. I used to keep a calendar with daily appointments, and a To-Do list on the side, but (duh) I NEVER scheduled TIME to DO those things on the list. So I was constantly dismayed when they didn’t get done. Because I was going to do them on some parallel plane, right?

Magical thinking is dangerous.

With both weight loss and decluttering, it is so easy to say “I wish…” without a plan. But without a real plan, and some sense of accountability, you’re doomed to have your wishes evaporate like a wisp of smoke.

Doing too much too fast leads to burnout.

Just like with crash dieting, crash decluttering can lead to burnout.

I had a great time organizing my office on New Years’ Day. I felt so accomplished! I could see the floor! Before I was finished, the dining room table caught my eye and I leaped over there. But I didn’t finish that either. Then I attacked this huge pile of paper on the kitchen counter. I ended up feeling exhausted and frustrated because I didn’t complete any ONE project. I would have been so much better off if I’d worked on, say, ONE drawer, or one small corner, or a shelf, and not three entire rooms.

I was doomed because I took on so much. So much the same with people who immediately want to “cleanse” their system so they stop eating food. Or they sign up for a marathon when they can’t even run a mile.

Baby steps, people! Baby steps! I know it’s so easy to feel impatient when you finally DECIDE to do something good for yourself. You want it to happen overnight. I know I do.

Buddies help. A LOT.

I am amazed at how true this is with both weight/health endeavors AND with decluttering, how much better/easier/more fun/motivating it is to do with friends. But how counterintuitive that can be at first, because the initial behavior is so embarrassing we don’t want to tell anyone about it. We’re ashamed at how we got so overweight/disorganized in the first place, we don’t want to share it.

But that’s been my new revelation this year with FoodFoodBodyBody. The more I wrote about the things that deeply pained me, the more friends came to support and rally around me. I am hoping the same will be true for my Clutterbrained efforts.

I already have a RL buddy who is blogging with me. We go to each others’ homes. We’ve taken each other on the Tour of Shame.

I can’t tell you how big this was, to open up my closet and to look at someone else’s. It’s big. But I think it’s the thing that’s going to get us where we want to be.

]]> http://mizfitonline.com/2010/03/11/the-clutterfitness-connection-guest-post/feed/ http://mizfitonline.com/2010/03/10/what-learned/ http://mizfitonline.com/2010/03/10/what-learned/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:59 +0000 MizFit http://mizfitonline.com/?p=5473 Subtitle: All in bullets as that’s how my brain is working right now.

Maria, Lisa & me after the race. Three tired princesses.

*There is 100 % a fineline between stress & excitement. We don’t call it stresscitement around herre for nothing.  On the plane I was excited. I was terrified. I fantasized about half-marathon running totally becoming my passion and wondered when & where I could run my next race.  I had visions of being loaded on to the PrincessWhoLostTheirSparklesVan (my name) because I ran so slowly the park was ready to open.
I was a full-on stresscited mess.

*Running is nothing like a bodybuilding show. While that statement is *seemingly* an obvious one (this past weekend required no selftanner, no glued on posing suits & no posing routine) it only struck me on the day before the race that there’s one other *huge* difference.

With bodybuilding I was done on show day & merely needed to display the fruits of my (cardio lifting dieting pose-practicing) labors.

When running a race the work is in the training and there’s still work to be done on competition day. (See above stresscitement & cross-reference under exacerbated on Saturday)

(It seems this makes me officially a non-runner but YES the race did feel like work.)

*Dont always be a nerdy rule follower Lordy I learned this one the hard way and, upon post-race reflection do think that it could be about 88.329847% of the reason why race day felt like work.  I read the “ipods are discouraged” message as “dont bring an ipod.”

13.1 miles later I was ruing my decision and regretting being such a hardcore rule follower. Not only did I lack tunes to propel me onward there were so few others running sans-tunes I had no one to chat with.

In short, it sucked. At least on the treadmill I had Patty to hang with!

*In running, as in life, always ask for what you need. Above lament aside, I did see a few women who were running without buds firmly in ears.  At one point (mile 11ish) I felt my motivation waning.  There was no way I was walking (100% because I wanted to git the musicfreerun DONE!) but I longed for some encouragement.

I jogged next to a total strangerprincess, looked her dead in the eye, and said to her: please tell me I ROCK & that I can do this!

To my surprise she did.  I returned the favor and we never spoke again.

Seriously, in running as in life it *so* pays off to just ask for what you need.

*I do practice what I preach! Ive talked here about how Im not a fan of the scale.  I rarely weigh myself outside of doctors visits because I know how my clothes should fit and, when they dont, thats information enough!

I also yammer to my IRL friends about how I never check my blog stats.  For me it’s the same as the scale: why let a number dictate my self-worth!

As a result it only struck me hours after the race that I had no clue how fast or slow Id run it!  I never looked at my watch once nor did I check my stats upon race completion.  I finished.  I succeeded.  ’nuff said!

*I do think Id run another…the more I forget the OUCH! of this one. I can say Id never run the Disney Princess half again (ok, maybe not.  see? Im already caving!).  I didnt mind the fact that we were up at the CRACK of dawn only to wait hours and hours for the race to begin—what killed me was the cold.  Id not anticipated how frickin freezing Id be in the wee hours of a Florida morning.  A fricking freezing which lasted, for me, till almost mile six.

Another half? In a warmer early morning clime? Who can say…

So that’s me.

A few days post half-running and nary a clue if I’ll hang up the Asics forever or consult my calendar and schedule another race.

And you?

How do you typically feel after you accomplish your goal?

Do you immediately find a new one or, like I am, do you simply bask a while in the glow of accomplishment and *wait* to make any new plans or decisions?

Regardless, even if I never ever run again, I decided I am indeed the tee-shirt below (it’s hard to read, I know.  You may need to click on it):

and yeah.

It feels pretty damn great.

Hmmm. I guess the pic isnt all that obvious. It’s the Austin airport.

And, since Ren. Man & the Tornado were unable to come to Disney with me (*cue no confetti & nothing shaped like the three of us frolicking arm in arm through the magic castle*), today Im living not blogging.

Today Im hanging with my own personal princess:

Today Im spending time on uber-serious endeavors like whether or not we can fashion a realistic looking pizza out of playdough & getting a spring-is-coming new!look! makeover (if by ‘makeover’ you mean Im letting her do my hair & make-up —-which I do).

Today I’m PLAYingout not WORKingout…

and only doing things where the Tornado can join in.

Today Im just living not blogging about life.

My initial thoughts about yesterday’s runtastic experience.

And yes, perhaps to your chagrin, a longer post is coming later Im sure.

For today Im off to play grownup in Disney (which is, indeed, an oxymoron).