Hiking, a heavy bag, and some hockey

It’s been a challenging few days. You see, I was born on February 29th, Leap Year. It has given me a distorted view on the importance of birthdays, and making the choice of when to celebrate is a confusing one. This presents many challenges to my diet. How does one make healthy choices throughout celebrations? Even more challenging, what happens when the celebration seems to cover a a few days?

We decided to celebrate my birthday with the family by purchasing a family pack of hockey tickets on the glass, close enough to help the refs make calls and help egg on a few good hockey fights. Suddenly, I’m faced with the desire for a micro-brew, a polish sausage, nachos and the freshly sliced turkey sandwich at the new arena sandwich bar. I don’t do well under this sort of temptation, especially when I’m carrying a wad of cash to guarantee some fun that evening. Needless to say the dogs, beer and various chocolate items were consumed in a glutinous style while celebrating this near birthday and a 5-1 victory by the Seattle Thunderbirds over the Everett Silvertips.

I did hike, I hit the heavy bag, and put in the required bare minimum of effort into exercise in the last few days. Making healthy food choices is back on track, but I’ll need to re-commit to really putting in the effort to make a legitimate positive lifestyle change.

At least in 2012 I have a “real” birthday. Maybe I’ll be able to shorten the length of the celebration/break in the diet.

I feel like baking some healthy bread.

The Fat Guy Diet: A Couple Days In

I’m entering that “bitter and angry” phase I’ve mentioned before. I love great food, and I need to transition to great, healthy food. Two days of exercise (hiking/heavy bag) has been effective, but making the food shift is rough. One of my strategies is to increase seafood and do less red meat and sauces (I love both). I’ve made a couple good choice with crab cakes and skipping the cheese on my eggs and veggies breakfast. I did pick up some Ahi Tuna with the intent of having fish tacos (a couple of days worth). I do a mixed veggie salsa and bake the fish (no breading). Each taco is only about 150 calories, and two with a side of beans is usually perfect. They are so good, I want the third, but that’s where the will power needs to kick in.

Today’s heavy bag was great. I do about four three-minute rounds.
Round 1: 20 Jabs, 20 Cross, 20 Uppercuts left/right, 20 hooks, left/right to the body, 20 hooks to the head.
Round 2: Combinations of 1/2′s, high/then low, work hard to get cardio going, circle the bag, end with a few combos that end in big hooks.
Round 3: Push the cardio. Lots of body shots, bend my knees, lots of combos with low hooks to the body.
Round 4: Cardio with everything I have left 40-60 combos.
Cool down- do military press-like lift with bag – 2 sets of 10.
That’s where I am, now. Let’s see what I can work up to.

I’m increasing water consumption starting, today. We’ll try for about 6 pints, daily.

One of the few dietary problems is I just saw the movie, “Cook Your Life.” It’s inspired me to bake. I’ve tried to increase the whole grains and make healthier ingredient choices, but the end result have been so good, it’s hard to avoid overeating. We’ll pay attention to this.

The Fat Man Ready to Go Live

I’m a summer camp director and each summer I drop about 20-25 lbs from walking 6-8 miles daily while managing the program, eating small portions of food on the move and stressing over the 200 kids and 60 staff, under my care. It’s typically followed by spending the month of September eating out and enjoying time away from the facility (and putting the weight back on as quickly as I can). In 2010, I started early with making healthier eating choices, portion control and exercise, I dropped 15 lbs pre-season and 20 more before the end of August. Unforunately, I fell back into the same pattern and put back on 20 lbs between then and now.

I’m not feeling good about the twenty pounds and am ready to recommit to getting healthy.

I know diet is not the word to use but it seems to best describe the bitter angry stage I’m about to re-enter. You see I love great food. Fried seafood, burgers, pizza, fries and an early AM mocha (loaded with caffeine) are staples. I recognize that this is a lifestyle change and needs to involve balance. Current habits (and seasonal ones as a camp director) involve working too much, not exercising enough and eating at work (mostly unhealthy camp foods). The change involves eating smaller portions, eating more whole grains, less processed foods and watching the sodium and sugars.

I’ll post stories along the way, but on day one here’s the thoughts on my mind…

I’m unprepared to change the coffee habit, as those around me suffer when I am not fueled by caffeine. I did make a shift from the coffee store twenty ounce-three shot mocha to two cups of Keurig brewed coffee (slightly less calories without the caffeine loss).

The books and blogs I read are helping to learn about balance and stress relief (currently reading the Dalai Lama’s, “The Essence of Happiness.”).

My exercise come in the form of hiking with my dog. He’s excellent of reminding me we are due, but I don’t always listen.

I’ll keep you posted.