Herbalife

First off, this is not a post about me going the stoner lifestyle, growing my hair out, joining a commune and stop bathing; this is about me taking a step to be a healthier me.

I've posted before about joining a gym to try to lose a gut that I've had most of my life, if not all of it since before high school and I'm in my early-30's now, so I've had it for quite some time.  The only change I've done to get in shape, was to join and go to a gym to workout.  Through that alone, I lost some weight but not a whole bunch.  What did end up happening was I slimmed down some.  In high school I wore size 42 pants and up to the point I decided to stop drinking Pepsi by the gallons and to start some exercising, before joining a gym, I stayed that in that size of pant.  Once I quite drinking soda, I lost 20 lbs just from that, which was from 250 lbs.  After buying a weight set and through some pedal pushing, went 230 lbs. and size 42, down to 226 and size 38.  For about a year my exercising slowed down but I still managed to lose weight, got down to 216 lb and size 36 for a short time.

I've been going to a gym now more regularly since my last posting on the matter but still have not managed to slim down to where I would like to be.  Most of that is because of diet, I like to eat, which is not the best way to lose the pounds or slim down, regardless if you exercise like an inmate, so to combat that, I've started doing Herbalife.  This decision wasn't brought on by some research or an article read somewhere or even from an ad I saw, but from a friend.  Last year he weighed in at 345 lbs in Oct. as of Feb of 2012, he is down 55 lbs by using Herbalife.  He no longer needs to take high blood pressure medicine and not because of Herbalife, but because he is eating better through the system, his body has been given the resources to heal itself.

After talking with him and deciding how much I would like to lose, I purchased a system for myself.  The system replaces two meals with shakes that you make and with a balanced third meal, you will lose weight.  I started on Monday February 13th and as of, Wednesday the 15th, have lost 1 lb, down from 221 lb to 220 lb.  Now, that may not seem like much but to me it is quite a bit.  I have been instructed to eat 1500 calories and 150 grams of protein a day, which I have found to be difficult, with the me liking to eat, having snackage readily available to me at work.  With no longer eating in the employee cafe, which is free to us, I am not taking in as many calories as I used to and not as much protein either.  I just have to find the sweet spot to grab the necessary protein without all the calories.

To help me track all of this, I downloaded an app to my phone call MyFitnessPal.  With it, you can track what you eat, how much, your workouts, water intake and it will tell you the nutrients you've taken in for the day based on what you put in.  Bonus is, you don't have to guess or read the labels for the information, it has a search function that looks up the items.  No more guessing or tracking in a notebook.  Oh, it's also free and you can use it on a regular computer as well.

History

I'm at the gym last night on the medieval torture device aka an elliptical machine, doing an obscene amount of cardio as well as sweating in an obscene amount and on the tele I have the History channel playing. Almost always when I am at the gym, I watch the History channel while listening to my phone; I don't have an ipod or any other music device but my Droid works perfectly fine. Obviously if I am listening to music, I can't be listening to the tele, so I read it through the closed captioning but that is actually getting off the subject I want to go to.

It seems to me that the History channel has become nothing more than one giant reality tv channel. You have American Pickers, Pawn Stars, IRT (Ice Road Truckers), Swamp People, Ax Men, Chasing Mummies, Extreme Marksmen, UFO Hunters, Top Shot and Stan Lee's Superhumans. The only one of those shoes that would have some history to it, would be Chasing Mummies. All the others may have a little bit about history in them but for the most part they are just reality tv shows.

I know Americans aren't interested in history all that much these days and all we want is that instant gratification, either in a cheap laugh or a cheap bit of shock or scare but you'd think a channel such as the History channel would not be airing shows that don't have some sort value beyond that.

Working Out

I've been going to the gym for some time now, about two years so far and I have yet to reach my goal of losing this gut.

Now, grant it, I am not the most faithful in going everyday like I want to; especially considering of having to switch gyms early this year to one that is a bit further out to drive. Plus I don't diet, so that is a negative on me. My reasoning for not dieting is that I just need to become more active as when I started this health kick five years ago, I weighed 250 lbs. I lost quite a bit just by knocking soda out of my diet and drinking mostly water. That alone along with riding a bike throughout the summer afternoons when I got off of work from my previous job helped me get down to 226-230 lbs.

When I moved out, I managed to get down to 216 at one point by working out on a weight machine and not eating as much. I gained a bit more back once I had to move again and starting eating more and working out less.

Now once I moved home, bad economy helped on that bit, I stopped working out all together and was going out to eat with a friend almost everyday and having soda with said meal. Now, let me tell you this, pizza and soda does not make a proper weight loss plan. No matter what anybody is trying to tell you. They are either trying to sell you pizza or comfort, both would be a safe bet.

So now we are here, in the present and I've been going more regularly but still not losing anything. I'm really not concerned with the weight, just this fat belly but I think the real problem is diet and the fact that I'm not really watching what I eat, just kinda how much I eat.

I am going to do this thing. Going to get down to wearing 36s in a loose fashion and perhaps even go smaller.

Pain

The past few days I have been in some pain, from mild discomfort to the type that can take your breathe away.  I have been racking my brain trying to figure out why I would be in this much pain and the only thing that I can figure out is that I have overdone it at the gym while working out.

I haven't become some sort of gym rat that goes every day to spend several hours there trying to build muscle upon muscle to impress the other gym rats but to go to try to get in shape and lose some flab.  I've been going for a bit and haven't really lost any weight nor have I slimmed down really any, so I decided to switch things up.

That, I believe, is where I have screwed up.  Before I was doing the elliptical medieval torture device without really any results, so I decided two weeks ago to start doing the treadmill like a rat in a wheel.  I do not run or I should say that I do not like to run so I don't.  So on the treadmill I mostly walk and have the thing set to random so it can alternate on the incline as it so pleases.  This leaves me free to decide how slow or fast I would like to walk and it seems that 3.7 mph, is the point that most likely causes my body to hurt the next few days after.

Now before my lower back had been hurting a little and it has been building to the point of much discomfort on the 4th.  Since that day, I haven't been to the gym, been walking like an old man and been eating over the counter pain pills, to no effect mind you.  Excedrin, Ibuprofen and Aleve have really done nothing to stop it, but has allowed that pain to ease a little.

Just a little.

Today I had to run to work to drop something off, get fitted for a tux and decided that since I wasn't in too much pain, I would go workout.

I feel this will be the dumbest mistake I have made thus far.

I had some discomfort starting out, which subsided and now as I type this, it is coming back.

Must've been a mix of pain pills and endorphins that was making me feel good.

Good thing I am off today and tomorrow, hopefully this will be done with by Friday.

Less Or More

I go to a gym occasionally.

And I do mean, occasionally.

Like once or twice a week occasionally.

Which I know what you health freaks are thinking, "That is no way enough to get into any sort of shape and be healthy." You're right. It isn't.

I should really strive to go more often and watch how much I eat, as opposed to watching what I eat as a shovel it into the abyss that is my belly. Now is the perfect time to really get on the ball to get motivated since warmer weather is approaching and bathing suit season is nearing.

*Lisp* And I have got the cutest little black and purple dotted bikini picked out! It will fit in the most spectacular way and show off all of my lovely bits to attract all of the ladies. */lisp*

You cannot un-think that.

Seriously though, I was down to a sparsely 216 at one point in my life; which was through little working out, not much in the way of over indulgence in food and mucho gratuitous amounts of alcohol.

Maybe that is the path of least resistance for me at this point, less food, more working out and more alcohol.

I think I hear a beer saying some very un-kind things about my mother in the fridge, I must go teach it and some of his kin a lesson in manners.

Till next time, laters.