Crazy Christmas Time:

6 sugar cookies (in 1 day) = 130 calories per cookie x 6 = 780 total... not to mention the other things I ate today.

Going to be an extra long day at the gym! Ugh - bad me, bad!

And the sad part is, I enjoyed those cookies sooo much! They were all left over from Friday's work christmas party. To think I did so well on Friday but blew it on Monday when the left overs were left out in the common area. For shame!

Been doing weighted pullups (about 125/day... with 20 additional lbs) Today I will attempt 30lbs.

Fathead

One of the blogs I like to read in the morning, when I'm having a slow day --> FITBOMB. I haven't read it in a long time, so yesterday afternoon I read about 30posts straight. Aside from my brain feeling a bit mushy, I was intrigued by a comment he made regarding Hulu and Fathead and how everyone should go watch it.

Well, after all that reading, why not spend another hour and a half in front of the computer? So I did.

I enjoyed the movie - it was a nice spin off of the Spurlock Super Size Me flick. Only this time the narrator lost weight eating fast food. Proving the point that Spurlock was going way out of his way to eat unhealthy at these places and that a level headed individual with a modest understanding of health/fitness can eat a fast-food diet with little health concern.

I liked some of the interview with doctors and scientists - and actually I think his personal doctor (the one who gave him the before/after screening) was hilarious! "Has anyone ever told you that you have a heart-murmur!?" "Uh... no" "Good, because you don't have one!"

It's a good film, mildly educational and certainly entertaining. If you've got an hour+ to waste this weekend (And I know you do). Skip over to Hulu.com and watch it. I just typed Fathead into the search bar and it came right up. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

*I weighed in this morning at 152 - down from my thanksgiving high of 156ish... I've been doing MASS PULLUPS (100+) with weight (17.5 + 20lbs) situp routines, pushup routines, and some max weight style lifting to build bulk and strength.*

Diet Kryptonite...day 28^3

Everyone knows superman has a weakness... but did you know that every diet has a weakness too? Perhaps some of you have been battling that one food (or perhaps food group) that really is more than just food, but some kind of evil arch nemesis. I know I have a few lurking in the shadows. Namely Pizza, Coffee, and Rum&Cokes.

So what should you do with these perpetrators that destroy your good deeds and leave you feeling miserable/guilty afterwords? It'd be a little too easy for me to just say "Avoid them" and it'd be too complicated if I try to explain the feel good chemicals in your brain that you associate with these foods.

The best thing to do is identify them. Knowing your weaknesses will absolutely help you minimize any collateral damage these badins will do to you. For me, it's best to stay away from Friday Lunches that are to Domino's Pizza or John's Pizza and Wings. If that means a couple fridays per month I'm bagging my lunch - okay. Does it mean I might have to sit at my office and eat, sometimes yes. As for coffee... my best defense against this evil foe is to get a good night's sleep and be well rested the next day as to not require that morning cup'o'joe. And as for alcohol...try to remember that the best feel good drug is having a good time - and having a good time does not mean having 3 drinks first.

Perhaps you have your own arch rival in your diet plan - your best bet is to identify it immediately and figure out your best approach to dealing with it, because sooner or later - if you don't stay on your toes - the bad guy might win!

Day 24^3

My new outlook on fitness. Probably something I've been meaning to post for a while now... ever since I have been on yahoo answers helping other people lose weight and formulate exercise programs, I've come to the conclusion that "Losing 10lbs" is not the only thing you need when it comes to fitness goal-setting.

Let's consider losing 10lbs as a destination. And everyone knows you need to travel to a destination, so let's agree that fitness/diets are the journey. My new outlook on fitness is that loving the destination/goal is not enough. If you're not prepared to embrace the journey, you're never going to reach your destination (or if you do, you'll likely find yourself somewhere else down the road once you've given up).

Fitness and being healthy are a lifestyle. And we all know that life in itself is its own little journey. So, to me, this philosophy makes perfect sense. Hopefully it does to you too.

So my message to everyone out there who is struggling to lose weight, or struggling to stick to a diet, or just trying to maintain a healthy figure - set a more interesting goal: "I will formulate a diet/exercise plan that will help me get to my destination AND will be something that I can embrace and do every day (or X times per week) with room for improvements and adaptations that I may perform for many years to come" NOW THAT'S A GOAL!

Day 23^3

Perhaps I've gone over this before... but food labels - in all their glory can be quite deceptive. I don't mean the nutritional facts on the back with their sly tricks for serving size and rounding down content... I mean buzz words and trends like "Low Carb" "Low Fat" "Reduced Fat" "Light" "Organic" "All Natural" "Whole Grain" and my personal favorite "Fat Free"

Lets take a look at what some of these mean - and DONT MEAN:

Low Fat: Low fat means a product contains 3g of fat or less per serving, and 30% or less of total calories

Reduced Fat: Reduced fat products contain at least 25% less fat than the original version. This does not mean that the reduced fat version is low fat (or even healthy). Take a package of reduced fat cookies, for example. If the original fat content per serving was 20g, and the fat has been reduced to 15g, it is still five times higher than the 3g per serving that officially qualifies as low fat.

Low-Carb: The FDA has not yet legally defined what "low-carbohydrate" means - so buying a low-carb snack, could mean abolustely anything.

Light: At least 50% less fat or 1/3 fewer calories per serving than the “regular” full-fat food cited on the label.

Organic: 90% of the food item is produced by farmers who avoided the use of bio-persistent nonselective chemical pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. It does not ensure 100% organic - there is a 100% for those type foods.

Whole Grain: Are cereal grains that consist of the intact and unrefined, ground, cracked or flaked fruit of the grains whose principal components - the starchy endosperm, germ and bran - are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact grain.

All Natural: According to the USDA, food can only be labeled natural if it contains no artificial ingredients or added colors and is minimally processed.

Fat Free: Each serving of food has less than 1/2 gram of fat - but not necessary completely void of fat.