Round 4 begins

In two hours we bought groceries ($55 for two people for about five days), created 15 juices, prepped for ninja smoothies for tomorrow, cleaned, and made a last supper of veggie quesadillas.  The menu these first few days is

Beetlejuice

Beets, ginger, cucumber, lemon, apples, spinach

Warrior

Beets, orange, carrot, sweet potato, ginger, spinach, kale, pineapple, lime

Sea Breeze

Pineapple, cucumber, apple, kiwi

Sublime

Spinach, kale, mandarin sunshine, agave, lime

No excuses y’all.  Let’s do this.

 

Ciao

 

Sk

Do you remember?

I will go out on a limb and say that most, if not all, of us has a great moment we look back on where we were “in pretty good shape”.  It may have been playing sports in high school or when you completed a race in your 20s or after a biggest loser challenge at work in your 30s.  There’s some cool memory you have where you felt pretty good about who was looking at you in the mirror.

Mine was in my 20s and playing pick up basketball ALL THE TIME.  There is zero exaggeration in all the time.  I was probably on some kind of basketball court five days a week.  I played basketball instead of going out.  I wasn’t really trying to be in shape, we were just having fun and the by-product was I could run and jump and had a little bit of stamina and strength, pretty freaking awesome.

Fast forward from that happy picture you have in the full length mirror to the pictures you take now that are just of your increasingly round-ish face.  I was trying to think the other day when I got fat.  As with most things it is a slow and arduous process to reach the rotund physique that I created in my soon to be 41-year-old body.  I do recall a moment though when I was getting out of the shower and realized that my fat rolls on my back were now touching each other (sexy imagery I know).

Being sloppy was pretty fun though, aside from the aches, pains, shortness of breath, and ice packs.  I just ate and slept and ate some more.  I was lucky enough that my fat-boy was still able to be a fairly active dude.  Those good genetics allowed me to just keep on keeping on with my life because “it wasn’t that bad”.

I remember being smaller, but I really don’t remember what it felt like to be “in good shape”.

I remember the feeling of getting excited about a buffet

I remember the mouth-watering goodness of birthday cake

I remember eating a third plate in one sitting of a holiday meal

But I don’t recall what if felt like to actually be fairly fit…that’s pretty sad.

I remember someone telling me once that while recovering from alcoholism he had to create “new tapes” that would play in his head.  He had to create new responses for the situations his entire life that had previously been to take a drink.  I want some new healthy tapes too.  I’d like to know what waking up and craving green smoothies instead of chicken biscuits feels like.  Maybe I can automatically enjoy an apple the way I’ve enjoyed a Twix my entire life.

Reset

Restart

Re-live

Timehop is a pretty cool app that goes back into your social media archive and shows you what you posted in previous years.  There has been tons of cool stuff but something I have also realized

DUDE I’VE BEEN FAT A LONG TIME

and I’ve been putting it out there a long time and I’ve been fighting it a long time.

Finding that 20 something basketball kid isn’t about a resolution or a plan or a program.  That kid didn’t have any of that.  He just played and lived.  That kid didn’t eat great but that kid also knew that if he wanted to be able to not suck on the court that night I couldn’t destroy five trips back through the buffet line either.

Reset

Restart

Re-live

Making new memories takes time and most of us hate that part so we’d rather just keep pulling up the mental VCR on the old memories that are comfortable and safe.  Gang you can’t find a VHS tape now to save your life, yet you won’t upgrade your mental Beta tapes for fear of losing something special.  I think it is a good day to try this fancy new HD life guys…come on, you’ve got nothing to lose.

Ciao

SK

Excuses, excuses, excuses

This is the part of a blog where the writer tells you all the reasons he hasn’t been writing.

Fill in the blank _______________________________________________________________ is why I haven’t been blogging.

More than anything else, I just haven’t taken the time and sat down and wrote.  Writing is like running for me.  I love to do them both, but I have to schedule time for both activities and sometimes I just get lazy and stop.  Luckily I always come back because I love them both so.  Usually It takes a little bit of motivation for me to get on board and come back and today is no different.

Now for those of you interested in juice stuff, I have been actually writing down recipes and I will be creating a separate section on the blog for juicing and juice fast type things.  I’m not going to commit to when I’ll get it up, but hopefully before my next fast (January 5 if any of you want to start planning now).

This fitness journey for me really start with Carlos Whitaker and his #fitbyfourth initiative he started back in the summer.  That got me moving, fasting got some weight off and changed habits, and I’ve just kept at it.  Well ‘Los is back at it again with #fitbyfirst coming at us right now.  31 days to get a jump-start on a healthier me.  I’ve really done well watching what I eat, exercising, and continuing to lose weight, but everyone likes a little motivation from time to time.  One of the keys to the Journey with ‘Los is to journal.  I have terrible handwriting, so one again I’ll be bringing my journal here to share with you guys.

The first couple of days are easy…Take a before picture, make a video to yourself from yourself, and do the fitness test.  All items are complete and I’m ready to get after it.  2015 will be my year to get back into the under 200 lb club.  I also have plans for a half marathon and wait for it…muscles!!!!  I also have a pile of personal and financial things that I have been working on and improving that will continue to move forward for me.

So I’m back…again…don’t hate me because I’m wishy-washy, just love me because…well…just because I need love darnit.

 

Ciao

 

SK

Basement Living

Basements are pretty neat creations.  They are dark and cool.  A lot of them have huge TV’s or super cool workout facilities.  Some people put customized bars or maybe a movie theater or a bowling alley.  Even the unfinished variety are cool places to store stuff and keep things out of sight.  The basement is generally one of the best places in a home.

A radio host that I listen to always refers to going in the basement when he is on vacation.  I adopted this term to describe when I want to go away on a vacation from life.  But unlike the physical hole in the ground below your home or his metaphorical place to reset from work, my basement is not really a good place.

I went missing and into the basement for about a month when I discovered that I would be losing my job.  I have had a tough time the last few years with jobs…some related to the economy, some related to me making bad choices, and some related to just plain stupidity.  I unplugged from writing and I shut down from friends.  The entire time I am down there I am telling myself that I need to get out before it goes completely dark.

As fate would have it I was able to find a new job and new direction and another new start.  It has been a month of learning the new job as best I can and trying to find a new routine for eating, exercise, and even writing.  The same thing that got me writing before is doing it again, as I prepare to take on another 10 day juicing adventure.  Hopefully this time I can get some of you guys to go along with my craziness.

I missed this keyboard and I missed these words and I also missed the fast.  It was so good for my body but it was also amazing for my mind.  I believe it is a good time to give it a rip again and see how round two goes for me.

Basements are only really cool when they are a part of your house and not necessarily when you stay down there full-time.  I’m back and the light feels good.

Ciao

SK

Ice, Ice Baby

Unless you have been under a rock the past few weeks, I’m guessing that you have either seen or actually dumped a bucket of ice water on your head as part of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge.  It has been an amazing example in what happens when the internet is good and something goes viral.  I donated, but I didn’t dump the water.

I love when people get motivated and involved, but unfortunately it is usually Haley’s comet and doesn’t become a lifestyle.  I wonder if people will match their donations and fervor next year when there are no videos and no challenges?

Most of my life has been an ALS challenge.  I get moved and motivated and I make some great change or have some outward expression of change, but unfortunately it was about as long as these videos.  Real change is progress and not viral.  There are no viral campaigns for sensible diet and exercise.  There is not a get an education video challenge anywhere that includes 90 seconds of someone reading Beowulf.  Some things just take time.

I hope this outpouring of funding directly leads to a cure.  That is something permanent.  I’m shooting for something permanent personally.  Part of the process is writing, part of it is planning, but the bulk of it is doing.

Happy Friday everyone…you can thank me later

 

Ciao

 

SK

Gooooooaaaaaaaalllllllllllll

I ran into a friend over the weekend and they had seen my Facebook posts and asked how the fast was and complimented me on my success.  Then he hit me with a question, that I really hadn’t thought about:

“So what’s your goal?”

If you know me offline, there’s a pretty good chance you know that I love goals and goal setting.  It is in my DNA but somewhere during this process I totally forgot to think about what in the world I wanted to accomplish for this to be a success.

Of course I want to lose more weight, but how much?

Of course I want to be healthier, but how do I measure that?

Of course I want to look good in a speedo, but really who actually wears a speedo?

I also need to work on some type of reward for reaching this goal.  I’m always looking for something to celebrate, so this could be yet another reason for a party, right?  I realize that my body is not like anyone’s else body so I need to use my data to see where I need to land in order to be healthy, so let’s do the word problem…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based off of my last measurements (231 lbs and 26.38% body fat), I am carrying around 61 lbs of fat.  No I didn’t stutter, I’m carrying around a 7 yr old boys worth of fat on a daily basis.  No wonder my blood pressure is high and I haven’t felt well.  In order for me to get into the “fitness” category I would need to lose approximately 27 lbs of fat.  That would bring my goal weight to 204 lbs and my body fat to 16.67%.  On a safe weight loss goal of one pound per week, that puts my target date as approximate March 1, 2015.  That really can’t be all the goals I have though right?

I want to complete another 7 day juice fast in November and another one in January.

I want to complete a “how to” .pdf/book/pamphlet and make it available to the masses before the November fast.

I want to complete a minimum of one 5k in 2014.

I want to complete 6 races of various lengths in 2015.

I want to keep my daily calorie intake under 2000.

I want to completely overhaul this blog and turn it into something special.

I want to get my blood pressure to a normal, healthy level.

They, whoever they is, say that putting your goals in writing increases the likelihood of them becoming reality.  I don’t have time to waste.

************This blog post has been sponsored by the sodas and candy that I no longer crave and that I hope will be dead to me forever************

 

Ciao

 

SK

That’s what friends are for

The fast is over and tomorrow I will reveal the results.  I’m seriously excited to see what the final tally will be and where I will go from there.  For today, let’s talk about your support system.

Accountability, authentic, and transparency are super-cool buzzwords that people like to throw around these days.  Ultimately it is about people being personally accountable for their actions and outcomes and not putting on a face for the world.

I AM HORRIBLE AT THIS

I really don’t think I know very many people who are good at this.  We all put on a show and let people in only on a surface level.  I don’t necessarily think that you need to tell everyone you see all of your business, but you do need people in your life that hold you accountable and push you to do more.

“I want the kind of friends that love me enough to meet me where I am but love me so much not to leave me there”

I don’t know where I hear this, but it is not my quote.  I believe we want, crave, and need these kind of relationships in our lives.  What in the world does this have to do with juicing (I told you the other day that this stuff is just like relationships)?

I don’t think there is any way that I could have done this fast without the help and support of my coworkers that undertook it with me.  The reason I know this is because I have always quit on these kind of life change/health events within the first third of the adventure.  And I have tried short, long, exercise, diet, and activity changes that were much, much easier than fasting yet I didn’t have near the success.

We went through all the mess together.

We texted each other when we struggled.

We celebrated each and every day with each other.

We could understand each other’s misery.

There was something magical about coming in each day and knowing that everyone I was looking at all day was in the same boat as I am.

I guess I need to formally thank my coworkers for doing this nonsense.  I couldn’t have made it through the third day without knowing that I would be put on the spot the next day about the waffle I consumed.  If you are even a little, itty-bitty, teensy bit interested in maybe juicing then I would say find someone who is going to do this with you.  Preferably someone who you interact with daily.  I’m sure there is someone at your office or your house or in your neighborhood that could lose a couple of LB’s and would team up with you.

Challenge extended–movement to be continued

Now for the real reason that I wrote this post:

 

Ciao

 

SK

G was right

I was a band nerd in high school (technically I was a band nerd in college as well).  Our band director in high school was also one of the most influential men in my life growing up.  I was friends with both of his sons, spent countless hours at his home, and I was even lucky enough to speak on his behalf the day they named the fine arts building at the school in his honor.  His middle initial was G so that was one of the numerous nicknames we had for him.

G was notorious for his sayings that band people got used to hearing over our four years in his classes.  Some were funny, some were prophetic, and some I still don’t understand to this day.  One of his constants over the years was:

Plan your work and work your plan

Simple enough right?

We could apply this simple concept to countless applications in life from your finances to raising kids.  What I didn’t realize was that it might be the most critical component to completing a juice fast.

We decided from day one that we would make three days worth of juices at a time.  Simple enough?  What I didn’t realize is that this opened up one of my greatest revelations of juicing and healthy living:

You have to make being healthy as easy and convenient as it is to be unhealthy

(Boy I’m on it today)

Eating healthy, by definition, requires a lot more work than being obese.  There are very few fast food options that aren’t a complete nutritional train wreck.  But by definition they are FAST.  Microwave meals are FAST.  Eating junk food is FAST.  Preparing a fresh green salad or selecting some lean meats for dinner and properly preparing them is not only not fast but it can be expensive.

There is no way I could have done this if I had to make the juices during the day as things went along I wouldn’t have made it out of the first day.  I also traveled with a cooler in the car constantly.  I had to have juice and water with me at all times.  As I have been going through this, my hunger patterns have totally changed and I never wanted to get caught in a situation where I didn’t have my chosen tools for battle.

Keep your eyes peeled, I’m going to give a how we did the fast tutorial and then try to put together a group for a fast later in the year.  Who knows where this is going or when it will end…regardless it is going to be a fun ride.

Thanks G!

 

Ciao

 

SK

Day 7

I made it a week…like seriously it has been a week since I had solid foods; absolutely amazing.

Today is also the beginning of our last “new” batch of juices and apparently our juice master has gone into the lab and created a fresh bath of juices.  The weekend juices were super yummy, but he’s been using actual recipes and this time he’s straight winging it.  They were ok, but it was clear that these were “guesses” on what went well together (stay tuned at the end of the fast I’ll break down the recipes and what I thought).

Day 7 was pretty normal altogether.  I’m starting to miss actually eating.  It is not that I don’t like the juicing, but I don’t think I’m ready for an extension past 10 days though.  I am very excited to have a juicer of my own to start supplementing my post fast eating with my own juice concoctions.

Starting anything sucks.  Whether it is a new job or a new diet or a new pair of shoes, there is always some trepidation in it for me.  As much as starting sucks, I believe I am even worse at finishing things.  It has been a chronic issue since my childhood.  I start with great intentions on working out, or writing, or losing weight, or reading more and then I get bored or apathetic or busy or something and all that positive mojo goes right out of the window.  At this point of the fast I’ve accomplished way more than I truthfully thought I would.  There’s absolutely no way I’m not going to finish this process.

I’m going to lay off from the journal the final few days and simply give you guys the results on Friday.  I’ve got a lot of things in my head though that I would like to explore with the blog in the near future.  I’m really excited to be a little more healthy, a little less beefy, and ultimately a lot more inspired.  All of this from juice?  The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

 

Ciao

 

SK

Looking Back-Part 2

It’s all in your head…

I really could sign off now on this post, because that’s the big idea.  So much of how I’ve programmed myself to consume food and drinks is totally in my head.

I’m supposed to have a biscuit at 7:30

I need to have a soda to get me going in the morning

I think its time for a snack mid morning

Since I ordered this entire plate of food I have to eat it

I haven’t eaten in four hours, I think I need pizza

I’ve read piles of information on the web about how many meals or how many calories we should and need to consume.  Some of the guys say six small meals and some people say two big meals with three snacks and some people say two meal replacements, one meal, and one trip around the block on a pogo stick.  The one common denominator I found with every one of these approaches is that they ALL had me consuming way fewer of everything than I was.  That’s not really taking into account me trying to lose weight, this was simply looking at how I should be eating.

I discovered on the first day of the fast how powerful my brain and my habits had been.  On the way to the office on day one, I found my stomach was growling and I was “hungry” at about 7:45.  That is also, coincidentally, about the same time I stopped every morning to grab a biscuit for breakfast (it is the most important meal of the day  right?).  Later in the day I was driving around listening to the Atlanta Braves game and the announcers were talking about ice cream and my mouth instantly started watering.  My sister text me later, not realizing I was fasting yet, and asked me if I was familiar with some new kind of chip that is out.  My tummy again started growling, and I didn’t even care for the combination of items on the chip.

Your body is designed to let you know when you need to eat.  Unfortunately humans have messed this up and flipped it around where we tell our body when it is time to eat.  I truly believe that over time I have programmed my stomach to growl and grimace when things are not typical.  This self-fulfilling prophecy then leads to eating whatever is within sight and is easy.  Add in aging, slower metabolism, and less activity and you end up Type 2 obese at 40.

As I’m typing this it is noon and I am just now having my first juice of the day.  I woke up at about 7:30.  That’s almost five hours.  And truthfully I wasn’t feeling hungry, but I know I need to get some vitamins and calories in my system so I don’t crash.  That’s after having my last juice at about 9 last night.

There continues to be things I’m learning about all of my life from the fast and my relationship with food.  Even if you don’t challenge yourself with a juice fast, I think it’s a good thing for all of us to challenge ourselves with something way outside our comfort zone and see what we learn about ourselves.

 

Ciao

 

SK