Back to the basics and gym observations

Well, it has been awhile since I have given an update regarding my status and where I am on my weight loss journey.  To be honest with you, my lack of blogging as meant a lack of accountability to my actions.  I’m sitting at 282.2 and have been pretty stagnant with regards to weight loss since December.  I did lose 1.8 pounds last week.

Although, the pounds have been slow to fall off, I certainly am not making excuses.  Joshua, my third child, was born December 29^th.  I have worked at maintaining a healthy life as a husband, father, employee, and business owner.  I take pride in maintaining between December until now with all of the life events we have had.

Don’t get me wrong, I have also enjoyed several good times and good food at family parties and various sporting events, live or at a sports bar.

I have also struggled with some food choices during the week.  My weaknesses have always been buffet restaurants and I have visited too many pizza and Chinese buffets since December.  With the amount of sodium that I would consume during one trip to the buffet, it is no wonder that I wouldn’t lose weight.  I would have to work my tail off just to maintain weight by playing the yo-yo game during the week.  It is time for those actions to stop!

Physically, I have continued to strive for new limits.  Once again, our family will be competing in the Naperville Triathlon in August.  As I train for the tri, I’m trying to increase my cardio endurance by using the elliptical trainer.  The elliptical is much easier on my knees than running and will hopefully help me in the long-term.  Today, I set a new personal record on the elliptical—10 miles in 65:30.

Time to stop wasting time!

Now, I promised you an observation from the gym.  With some recent trips to the gym, I have seen people get in there car and pull out a cigarette.  I thought, “Now, that was a waste of time.”  Did they really just come to the gym and spend that time exercising and dripping with sweat, so that they could get back in their car to light up a cancer stick?

Then I thought back to a time when I saw a personal trainer eating a monster hamburger and a big bag of fries and I looked at him and said, “Wow, what an example you are setting for the rest of us.”  He replied, “When you workout like I do and look like I do, you can enjoy this every now and then.”

Do people really workout so that they can enjoy their particular vices?  For one is might be a cigarette and for others it might be food, but either way people, like myself, have weaknesses.  As I was thinking about the people with the cigarettes, I realized that I’m also wasting my time.  I’m wasting my time by making poor food choices after I workout.

Food choices are interesting things to struggle with because we have to eat to survive while smokers, drinkers, or other addicts don’t have to have their drug of choice to survive.  The can just completely avoid it while I have to eat every day.

It is my goal to stop wasting my time.  It is my goal to treat my body they way God intended it to be treated.  Are you going to join me?