Wow it has been a long time - only 90 Days left

Hey everyone!

Hope you are all doing great!

It has been such a loooooong time since I wrote a blog but it is time to FOCUS!

I have said for a very long time that one of my main goals is to be the fittest I have ever been in my life at age 50.

Well...if I look at the countdown to 50 widget on the right side of this post...I have only 90 days until I turn fifty...that is it...only 90 days!

So the 90 day challenge has to officially begin!

90 Days of EATING WELL (yes...I will still allow myself some fun)
90 Days of EXERCISE
90 days of DRINKING LESS
90 Days of being FOCUSED

Can I do this? You bet I can!

So I am going to get my butt in gear and head to the gym RIGHT NOW!

Anyone want to join me on a 90 day challenge? The challenge can be whatever you like...but it has to start today.

I am going to try and blog more frequently over the next 90 days...please check in on me from time..if I show any signs of slipping give my butt a good kick.

It's for my own good.

Have a GREAT week everyone!

Alan

Time for me to buckle up

It's time for me to buckle down again (or is it "buckle up"? I don't know).

The summer has been great but full of over indulgences.

Have you ever visually "gotten away with it" but if you are being honest with yourself you know what your reality is?

That is where I am at now. 

The clothes I got when I reached goal are still fitting but I know if I don't smarten up they won't much longer. More importantly I just am not feeling healthy.

It is time to push through that wall and start the weight loss process again so I get myself back in check. I am after all a Weight Watchers leader a couple of times a week so I need to...correction...I want to...walk the walk. I believe the program works....but one has to actually do the program for it to work.

The fall season is, in my opinion, the best time to lose weight. We really only have Thanksgiving and Halloween to get through before the December holidays and in reality, even if we give Thanksgiving two days, that is only three official days of challenges. I think almost all of us can deal with three  days of weight loss challenges. Sure we have the things like birthdays but those are year round things no one can change. The summer events that can pose real challenges are winding down.

Yesterday was an interesting day at Weight Watchers. My bosses boss, and my bosses bosses boss (the General Manager) came to watch me lead a meeting. I'm still waiting for feedback but they seemed happy. Time will tell :-)

I am really loving leading meetings. I have managed to get things balanced out so it doesn't interfere with my Real Estate work (I only do meetings at times of day when things are typically quieter from a Real Estate perspective and will only do them if I have a receptionist now (smaller "At Work" meetings don't get a receptionist) which for the most part means I can go in, lead the meeting, and leave, so the time commitment is really limited.

I also spend way less time preparing. I read the topic overview at the start of the week (takes five minutes) and then spend twenty minutes thinking about what I am going to say before my first meeting each week. The reality is the group should be running the meeting not me so over structuring can be an issue. If the meeting is really good we may only barely touch on the topic of the week.

But....if I am going to lead I have to do the program. I really believe  it works so it is time to get 100% back on plan.

Be healthy!

Alan

Ouch...Twisted Pelvis

Hi all.

Have you ever twisted your Pelvis? Well I now have.

I was doing dead lifts and although I felt in control I lost balance as I was lowering the weight and knocked my body out of whack.

It is quite painful but fortunately I was with my trainer and he and another trainer helped me immensely.

I have to be very clear here...although I was being supervised by my trainer it is not my trainer's fault. I have done dead lifts a hundred times and he always tells me to contract my abs...I didn't listen.

I was focussed on lifting the weight and didn't give the clenching of the abs the attention it deserves.

After the accident I was massaged and instructed to do things like pull-ups to relieve the pain and it did work..if only temporarily.

They then suggested I see a chiropractor and at that point I would have tried anything.

My trainer made a call and got me an emergency appointment and off I went.

When I was there the chiropractor asked me how the incident occurred and I told her about the dead lifts and she said "it wasn't your first set was it?"...to which I replied "no". She then told me she sees it too often. People do exercises right for the first set or two, and then get careless and don't do things they need to do like clench their  abs. That was when I realized I was in fact NOT clenching my abs.

So now...because I failed to listen to my trainer I am in a lot of pain.

This morning I barely managed to get out of bed and started walking to the bathroom when my body literally froze. It hurt too much to move forward and it hurt too much to move backward. I had to wake Jamie up and get him to help me back to bed.

Eventually I did get up again (the only real motivator was the desperate need to go to the bathroom) and slowly moved around until my body started to release the stiffness a bit.

The day has been ok but I am a little afraid to go to bed tonight...the body will stiffen again for sure.

So...my words of wisdom for today...listen to your trainer! The things he/she tells you to do while exercising are likely more important than they may seem to be.

Now I can't exercise for a while and that is a worse feeling than the actual pain :-(

Be healthy!

Alan

The Morning After - Paying attention to the feedback

Last night we went to a friend's 40th Birthday Party.

We had a great time and met wonderful new people  but I consumed too much wine (surprise) and ate too much wonderful Mexican Food.

Most of the food was actually quite healthy (the quinoa salad was delicious!) so other than a Samosa and a small slice of cake I wasn't really eating bad food...I was just eating too much good food.

Sadly...quantity matters.

This morning I am not feeling the best. I have a slight hang over but the real issue is I feel sluggish, bloated, and...well...fat.

I am doing my official weigh-in on Sunday mornings now.

Seeing as I actually possess the official "Weight Watchers Scale" (not the ones you can buy in stores...the ones in the meeting rooms that are about $1000 each and are insanely accurate) I can weigh myself once a week, at home, at the same time...and yes...naked.

Ooops...sorry...hope you will be able to get that image out of your head quickly.

I am up 2.2 pounds.

I figure by weighing in Sunday mornings I am keeping it real. My weight will definitely have readings that are not "true" readings because I will have just come off of a Friday/Saturday night but let's face it...life is not evenly balanced and I think by doing it this way I am less focussed on what the scale reads on a particular day (too many variables) and more interested in the trend over time.

I am finding this way I don't starve myself before getting on the scale or binge right after getting on the scale...the scale simply captures a second in life and shows trends over time.

I wish I had had the guts to think of it this way when I was a member attending Weight Watchers meetings rather than  a Leader running them. Sometimes I would get so focussed on making sure the scale said the right thing that I would manipulate my eating patterns to achieve the correct result.

The question is...for who? I may have obtained the results I wanted but I know the truth...and doing it for the receptionist who weighed me or the Weight Watchers Leader is just plain silly. Now that I am a Leader myself I  know more than ever that before a meeting the WW staff are so busy processing people and getting them into their seats that they have forgotten what you weighed two seconds after you weigh in.

So my advice to anyone watching their weight?

Weigh in once a week..record it... take two seconds to think about WHY you are seeing a gain or loss...and then forget about it.

Once a month...take a GOOD look at your weight TREND and make adjustments if necessary. We are not on a diet after all...we are learning a better and healthier lifestyle.

Now back to today...I feel gross. I had fun last night but I could have had an equal amount of fun without waking up feeling like I just ate an entire pig.

Am I going to beat myself up? No. Am I going to remember the feedback? Remember how I feel right now in the hopes that I will do better next time?

Absolutely!

Be Healthy!

Alan

I'm Still Alive

Hey All!

Wow it has been a long time!

The last blog entry was on my birthday June 3rd!

Lately a few people have been kind enough to tell me they miss my blog and that is really nice to hear. Others have just wondered where I went as I haven't been on Facebook much either.

Not sure why I haven't been...just taking the time to re-group a bit I guess.

So why did I stop blogging?

If I am being honest I think for a few reasons:

1) I started feeling I was running out of things to say. After you lose weight one of the hardest things about "maintaining" is that it isn't as fun. There is a lot less joy when one says "Yay...I stayed the same!" It is a bit the same with blogging...writing about "maintaining" is harder.

2) I started wondering if anyone was still reading the thing anyway...but judging by the number of people telling me they miss it...I guess people were.

3) If I am being totally truthful I was a bit worried it was affecting my Real Estate Business. Not from a personal time perspective (it only takes me about twenty minutes and is usually done before 7:00AM) but from the perspective of people thinking I have refocussed and am less interested in Real Estate...particularly since I have taken on a couple of sessions as a Weight Watcher's Leader each week.

Believe me, that last point couldn't be further from the truth.  I am a workaholic and even when I was blogging almost every single day my devotion to Real Estate got me the President's Award for outstanding achievement in 2011...my devotion is and always has been very strong. Still...perception matters so I have to be careful with this one.

I am thinking the solution may be to write more Real Estate Blogs as well...just to ensure people know that that is where my focus truly is...I just won't compromise my health in the process.

So where am I with health and weight loss? With weight loss I am totally cool. Ideally I would like to drop an additional 5 - 10 pounds but the clothes fit great and I don't really need to...I am comfortable where I am..and it is summertime...I want to be able to have fun!

So will I lose the 5 - 10 pounds? Yes...but in September. I am focussing on maintaining for now.

The health side is where I really need to refocus. I have been eating the right foods to stay slim, but WAY too much processed stuff and way too many dinners out.

So a couple of weeks ago we started to change that. I am back to having healthy dinners almost every day and it makes me feel a lot better.

I am loving being a Weight Watchers Leader by the way. My groups are fun, and having to get up in front of them each week definitely helps to keep me in check.

So what is next in terms of goals? I am going to establish four goals as of today:

1) Make a healthy dinner at home at least five nights a week
2) Maintain my weight for the summer and not worry about "losing" while ensuring I don't gain.
3) Refocus on losing that 5 - 10 pounds on September 4th (1st day after Labour Day Weekend) and post a new picture of myself on-line shirtless on Friday October 12th.
4) Track what I eat...even if it is bad.

I guess I have some things to report on regularly.

Looks like the blog is back!

At 49 Life Is Good

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. Life seems to have taken on a form of its own lately and the ramp-up time involved in becoming a Weight Watchers Leader was actually more intense than I realized. So between Real Estate and Weight Watchers training things have been a bit crazy! The good news is the training is pretty much done now.

I miss my old Wednesday night group in Burlington A LOT, but I do have to tell you I am loving being a leader! I ended up agreeing to lead three groups although one is only a "fill-in" for an At Work program that needed a leader to complete the 26 series program there. So I am doing Wednesdays at 5:15PM at Holy Trinity Church behind the Toronto Eaton Centre, Saturdays at 9:15AM at Lawrence Park Community Church and for the next 12 weeks a lunch hour meeting at Ernst and Young for E&Y employees.

I have to tell you the groups at the meetings are GREAT! On Saturday my group stopped the meeting to sing Happy Birthday to me and deliver a cupcake with a candle in the top. They all sang Happy Birthday....and yes...I ate the cupcake...but no...not in front of them :-)

So here I am...49 years young today. It feels good. I read a book a while ago called Younger Next Year and it really helped me to reframe things. I now look forward to aging because as Jennifer Hudson would say: "I Got This". The book Younger Next Year is designed for men who are approaching or have reached retirement age but there is another book called "Younger Next Year For Women" which I am sure must be equally as good.

I don't think it would be possible to feel better than I feel today. Not only do I feel like I have my weight and my health under control, but I feel I am doing what I am meant to do, and that I have the best support group of friends in the world...and I have a support group of friends AROUND the world...it is awesome.

Last year I wrote a blog on my birthday about the importance of celebrating our birthdays simply because we have them...while many of those we love have passed on and are not able to celebrate birthdays anymore. I feel the same way today as I did when I wrote that blog.

Life is too short. It is meant to be lived and it is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest. It isn't always easy and sometimes we have to seek out joy because it may not be finding its way to us...but when we do find it we should celebrate...simply because we can feel. No matter what we may feel from day to day...we can feel.

So lets all celebrate our ability to feel.

It's a good thing.

Be healthy!

Alan

Ok I Admit It. I'm On A Bit Of A High

Those of you know me know that I am not exactly shy about celebrating. I figure I work hard for some things and when that work results in success...damn it...I'm going to celebrate. I try to admit my challenges as well though... cause y'all know I'm far from perfect. Last night I did my first "solo" as a Weight Watchers Leader. I wasn't really nervous about delivering the content. I was mostly just nervous about appearing nervous...and that can be a hard thing to "fix". When I did the trial run on the weekend it went well but the Territory Manager told me when I held my "before" picture up it was shaking like I was a 70 year old man. Last night I made sure not to hold it too long and elected to pass it along through the group instead, but even if I had held it up I think I would have been ok. I was nervous but I don't think it showed much...whew! When I was done the Territory Manager said to me "That was the worst first solo I have ever seen". She the laughed and said "You know I'm kidding right? That was the best first solo I have ever seen". That made me feel real good :-) She did have some great pointers which I really appreciated but at the end of the day I had fun. It gave me a bit of a high. Jamie took a video of it without my knowledge so if he can figure out how to black out the few faces (other than mine) that pop up in it, and if it does not prove too large to load I will post it on the blog and/or on Facebook. It will be a good keepsake to have. I was SOOOOO relieved when it was over and you better believe the wine got opened. Now it's back to reality...Time to devote all my attention to Real Estate...but that's cool...when I'm in a good place...all is good. Be healthy! Alan