Company Generosity - Good or Bad?

Now that I've been working at my current job for almost six months, I've come to see many of the perks of working for the company. But one of the aspects that I first considered as the best thing since a comfy desk chair, I've come now to view as a burden and curse.

 

 

As you can see, the company is more than generous with their supply of free snacks and drinks... The fridge is also full or MORE drinks as well as string cheese - LOTS of string cheese.

But here's the thing - turns out that some of my biggest temptations / weaknesses come in the form of things like Mountain Dew, Orange Crush and Sun Chips - things that are not in short supply here.

Now I'm not going to stand here and blame the company for my lack of weight loss - that'd be silly. But let's be honest...it'd be much easier for me NOT to eat / drink all these things if they weren't sitting there ready to be consumed.

So this is one of my main goals heading into this next month of the year (September) and in the future. To walk right past this closet and only focus on my lunch in the fridge and the water cooler in the corner.

Weekly Update #2

If you haven't heard, I'm doing weekly progress updates on my YouTube channel. Now I've tried doing this type of thing before, but I would just cowardly fade away once I started doing poorly. Let's not let that happen this time around, shall we?

Anyway, I'm just about done with quite the whirlwind of a week, and unfortunately it took a toll on my activity levels and discipline along the way. Had a wrench thrown in my routine - had to take a personal day off of work due to a death in the family, was asked to work from home twice this week, and even worked from a different office for a day. All these things threw curveballs at me and I wasn't ready.

When I can settle into a routine and know ahead of time what I have coming up, it gives me a better chance to plan out my meals and gym times. When things get kind of hectic and are thrown off-kilter, it gives me less time and warning to plan things out. With less time to plan, I'm more susceptible to giving in to spontaneous temptations (snacking, sleeping in) and therefore sabotaging my goals.

But the B-Side of that is that when I DO give in to the temptations of immediate gratification, I continue to give in the next time, and the time after that - each instance where I display a lack of discipline makes it easier to give in the following time. That's where the change needs to happen.

I mean, let's face it - no one rarely anyone can keep on point 100% of the time. We all mess up at one time or another! It's how we respond to that lapse in discipline that defines our journey and self-control. For me, it's been a week of good, followed by a bad Saturday, followed by a bad week, which turns into two weeks... You get the point.

That is the piece of the puzzle that I need to figure out for when these lapses come. Once I learn to stop the bleeding once the cut occurs, I'll be in great shape when the next temptation comes around.

Spring Cleaning

For today's post I'm feeling quite scatter-brained and absent-minded. I feel kind of frazzled and unable to focus intently on a single topic for this post, so I think I'll touch on a group of things that I feel I need to update you on. Got that? Great. Read on.

1. As you may have seen, my weekly updates have not gotten off the ground yet. I know it just sounds like an excuse, but allergies have been whoopin' my behind these last, two weeks and I haven't been making any progress that warrants a legit 'update.' However, I PROMISE you that updates will be around the corner. With Easter weekend coming up I will be visiting my parents in Wisconsin, so you can plan on my first update coming to you on April 14th. Let's see what kind of numbers I can have for you in two weeks!

2. I mentioned that I have a goal of losing 40 pounds by June 9th. If I do, I get to sign up for the Chicago Half Marathon. My lovely wife has also just informed me that she has an awesome gift she wants to give me as well that she and her brother have been collaborating on. In order to get that, I need to string together two great weeks of eating and exercising. Can't wait to see what it is! (And don't worry, I'll fill you in when I receive it.)

3. Also in that same vein, I got an email this morning telling me that the aforementioned Chicago Half Marathon is 33% ahead of its 2011 numbers, and that it will likely sell out in the near future. That's a bummer for me because I won't know if I can sign up for it until June 9th... Thus, I will either have to just sign up for it now to guarantee my spot, hope it'll still be open by June, or just accept the fact that I won't be able to run it. Or maybe just sign up for the Chicago Men's Health Urbanathlon in October instead!

4. I've recently started a new job downtown and I knew things were going to be different than my last job. The commute is much longer, the hours are longer and the work is harder. What I didn't expect was for there to be a break room stocked consistently with chips, soda and lots of other snacks. Needless to say, that has been a major struggle in my first, two weeks at the new gig. I really wish I could take a lunchtime run outside, but I would come back quite sweaty and smelly if I tried that. Maybe just a nice stroll will have to suffice. And lay off the Sun Chips, man!

5. As a result of the allergies and work snacks I assume that I have made negative progress on the scale. It's pretty frustrating, to be honest. But it's more of a frustration with my lack of effort, discipline and self-control rather than a frustration with the scale or the snacks. I'm the only one who can control which way the numbers go, and lately I've been quite lazy, complacent and out of control. With each day I string together I gain more confidence, so I just have to put the work in and get the ball rolling. Easier said than done...

And finally, I'll have to admit that I'm a bit jealous. I've been reading a lot of posts or seeing a lot of 'after pictures' lately by great individuals who have progress to show for their efforts. And while I'm happy for them, it's just kind of hard to see everyone ELSE doing well while I continue to tread water and sometimes almost sink at times.

But like I said, that will only continue if I allow it to. And let's start making each hour of the day count! Tomorrow morning I'm making my 6:00am-7:00am count by hitting the gym! I'll post proof tomorrow

Train Your Brain

Our brains are crazy things. It's amazing what they're capable of! Just think of all the functions it performs every single second of your life! But did you know that you can train your brain to increase your will power?


According this this article from the Boston Globe, it is possible to train the decision-making portion of your brain in an area called the prefrontal cortex:

"Those striving to complete a marathon, a diet or a doctoral dissertation can gain the willpower to help reach their goals by doing little self-control tasks throughout the day, like fixing their posture, avoiding curse words, or controlling their temper at home.... Neuroscientists believe these acts reinforce neural pathways in the brain’s prefrontal cortex that help us say “yes’’ to our goals and “no’’ to procrastination and temptation."

What?!? So you're saying that I can train myself and my brain to say "yes" when I need to say "yes" and "no" when I need to say "no?" Get me on that training program pronto! In my case, I need to be saying "no" to a lot of the bad food choices I make and "yes" to getting my butt to the gym first thing in the morning!

The article also goes on to say that your brain is more or less has a holding tank for will power. Exerting yourself with a morning workout and a long, decision-filled day at work could leave you depleted, exhausted and ornery by the time you get home at night. However, an extra dose of sweets can help you power through the rest of the day. 

I find this fascinating and encourage all of you to check out that article. It also obviously makes me wonder what I can do to increase my will power. Since the article says that those who exert self-control in dieting and weight loss usually excel in other areas of life, I wonder if those who excel in other areas of life succeed in weight loss as a result...

But just like training your legs and lungs to run longer and be stronger, it's going to take one decision at a time to train your brain to aid you in making the decisions it needs to help get you where you want to be. So I'm going to try to focus on the self-control it takes to do the little things every day. Of course I'm going to continue striving to accomplish my health and fitness goals, but I'm going to pay more attention to the little, minute decisions that will train my prefrontal cortex.

What do you think about this article? 

Knowledge vs. Action

I'm a sucker for knowledge. I enjoy learning new things about topics I love or at least have an elevated interested in.

I have endless sports statistics, players and games in my head. I know music lyrics that I don't even WANT to know - just turn on any Will Smith song and it will automatically start coming out of my mouth. I went to two men's conferences on back-to-back Saturdays this last month and enjoy reading books on how to be a good leader and husband. And I also read endless websites, articles and blogs on running, losing weight, training schedules and whatever else I think I can use to further my journey to 199 pounds.

But my problem comes whenever I try to APPLY all of this information.

Why does this happen? Why can't I follow the simple process of learning and then doing? Does the hard work and dedication scare me off? Do I feel like I need to finish other things before focusing on this? Do I just love fast food and soda that much?

It's tough having all these questions and not knowing what the answers are.

All I know today is that I have two, great days under my belt and I'm feeling confident. And I think that's the important thing for me - confidence. If I don't believe that I can actually lose all this weight, then I never will. If I get down on myself for having a bad food day and therefore skip the gym and get all down on myself, I'll just keep yo-yoing like I have been for the last three years.

Even though my actions don't always communicate it, losing this weight is very important to me - probably too much, to be honest. I get very hard on myself when I slip up which, instead of motivating me and getting me to the gym, actually sends me to the fridge or to the grocery store. I need to learn how to take small failures and turn them into positive actions.

And I promise not just to KNOW that, but to DO it as well!

Are my mindless wanderings getting annoying yet? :)