Weekly Accountability

While self-control and discipline are two things I lack in my weight loss journey (obviously), accountability is also something that isn't a huge part of my journey either.

Now, I understand that I have become friends with numbers of you from the YouTube Weight Loss Community, and that we all are rooting for each other to reach our goals, but there's minimal accountability in my personal life coming from family and close friends. I have a very small number of friends who are trying to lose weight, and therefore lack a gym buddy or someone to check in with on a regular basis.

So in hopes of putting myself out there a little more, I'm going to report weekly here on my blog with my weight and body measurements (a la Jess' blog). I don't have something terribly accurate with which to measure body fat, but hopefully I will be testing myself sometime down the road as I did a couple months ago to get some new results. 

I'll write up my first report today, but am planning on doing weekly updates on Saturdays from now on. (My next update post after this will be Saturday, March 24th). So let's see where we're starting!

Starting Weight: 278 pounds

Measurements:

Chest: 48"      Waist: 48.5"      Hips: 48"     Calves: 18"

Thighs: 29.5"     Biceps: 15.5"      Abdomen: 52"

Body Fat: 35.0%

Total: 259.5"

My body fat % is taken on my scale at home - probably not the most accurate thing...

In everyone's best interests, I will not be posting pictures every week like Jess does. She is MUCH easier on the eyes than I would be if I were to pose without a shirt on. I have taken "before" pictures, and once I feel that enough progress has been made visibly, I will start to post those on here. If I can stay on my game, I aim to post pictures every month. 

Are there any body parts I should add to my measurements? Any other things you'd like me to report each week?

Business vs Pleasure

STOP! If you'd rather WATCH my video instead of READ my post, click here!

Mindset is KEY to forming new habits and lifestyle changes. Bottom line.

Fellow weight loss vlogger Greg talks often on his YouTube channel about 'minding the big picture' and making sure that your mind is on board with your efforts when trying to lose weight. By keeping the overall goal in mind, your actions should then follow suit and guide your decisions day-to-day, meal-by meal. And (theoretically) each decision should get easier and more engrained in your daily efforts as you continue to make good choices. (It's no wonder he destroyed 80+ pounds in under a year with insight like that!)


And eventually, when you see progress from all your efforts, everything starts to seem more like fun and less like hard work!


That's what I'm looking forward to - seeing the gym as a place I look forward to going to rather than loathing since it seems like endless work. Each early morning wake-up is still a task, and some days I get side-tracked and distracted by Facebook and YouTube enough to where I don't even MAKE it to the gym! For some reason I allow myself to use pathetic and petty excuses to keep myself from doing the appropriate amount of sweating in the morning to get closer to my weight loss goals. 

All in all, my mind is on board with the IDEA of losing weight, sweating and having to buy smaller clothes, but for some reason my mind and actions aren't rallying together and saying, 'Hey, why don't we do all the stuff we know we need to do to not feel like a bag of s#!*?"

Waking up at 5:30am is no fun...

In reality, the only way I'm going to get in the habit of going to the gym and eventually have FUN getting up to go to the gym, is to (say it with me) - JUST DO IT! 99.9% of the time I have no real, legit excuse as to why I can't make it to the gym at 6:00 in the morning. It's not like I have a lot of things vying for that time of the day!

So for now, sure! If I have to view gym visits as business and hard work, so be it! It's something that NEEDS to get done day in and day out - just like a job. But once the clothes get looser and I can run more miles, I'll WANT to get to the gym to see how much more I can do!

It's all about your mindset. So as Matt Damon said in the movie Green Zone, (language warning -->) "Get your f'ing game face on!" 

First World Problems

Every time my fellow blogger Sara talks about her "First World Problems" I can't help but laugh. Not because of her misfortune, but because of her way of relaying the details. In no way am I trying to one-up her posts or compete with her, I'm just in love with her way of stating her differences with the world she lives in. So without further ado or drawn out reference to Sara's blog, here are my current First World Problems!

1. I may be the only one, but I can't stand it when fans or common folk decide that it's funny to purposefully be in the background of a newscast, sportscast, etc. Now don't get me wrong - I think the fans at The Today Show have the right to do so, but only when the camera is panning across the audience - not when they're making faces behind Al Roker's weather-reporting noggin. Example: the boys in this shot irk me, while the girls in the stands are being good spectators. (And this is a screen grab from a game I was actually watching Saturday). Just watch the game your parents paid for you to see. No one wants to see your tongue and peace sign,

Idiot Kids - FIRST WORLD PROBLEM!

2. So for quite a while now, I've only been working a part-time (30 hours a week) job with random freelance gigs to supplement it. It worked alright when I was single, but now that I'm married that kind of thing doesn't go over so well with Mr. Pocket Book. Thankfully, it looks like there's a new job on the way, but for now we have to think up creative and cheap date ideas. Thus, we are forced to head over to Best Buy and play video games over there. Here we are rocking the PlayStation Move.

Not owning our own gaming console - FIRST WORLD PROBLEM!

3. I don't know if it's because I'm way too heavy or because this chair is crap, but randomly my desk chair will slowly go down until I'm sitting only a few inches off the ground. Does wonders for the self-esteem...

Faulty Desk Chair - FIRST WORLD PROBLEM!

4. I'm an editor at a television station (for the next week or so). And usually I like it reasonably quiet in my office so I can edit shows. Makes sense, right? Well, for the last week I've had to endure the annoying noise of guys working in the ceiling in my office. Yes, IN the ceiling. I never got a heads up or a time frame of how long they'll be there or anything. C'mon, man!

Men in my office ceiling - FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!

5. I live in the Chicago Suburbs. We're not known for our mild winters. However, this year has been surprisingly mild and warm for the most part! However, on the day I want to go outside and DO something rather than sit in my apartment, the weather decides to mess with me. The picture on the left was taken around noon on Saturday. The picture on the right was taken...5 MINUTES LATER!

Stupid Weather - FIRST WORLD PROBLEM!

6. Due to said lack of money (see #2), I was forced to get the "free phone" from AT&T when I signed up with them in September. This phone has been nothing but kick me in the groin ever since then. It will randomly shut off while I'm trying to send a text, or restart itself when a friend is trying to ring me. I've even had a friend legitimately worried for my safety because they couldn't get a hold of me (because I didn't know my devil phone had shut off 3 hours earlier). 

Devil Phone - FIRST WORLD PROBLEM!

Well I guess this will have to do it for my first attempt at complaining about my awful life. That was sarcasm, my life is actually pretty good. I just enjoy pointing out the small flaws in our world and hoping you laugh at it.

What are some of your first world problems?