Monday, January 26, 2009

2009 Week THREE - Perseverance

Today's Weight - 335 (-6.2/-25.8)

I averaged 1918 calories last week with the following breakdown; Carbs - 48%, Fat - 28%, Protein - 24% and Alcohol - 0%. Returning to a full week with only a couple minor "Nutritional and Health Distractions" (NAHD for further reference :-) ) was nice. I'd like to move the Fat down 8% and the protein up 8% and then I'd feel REAL good about it. I remain motivated and upbeat about this process and I feel a little different this time as opposed to any other time. Its kind of like I am at piece with the process and feel more "EVEN KEEL" with it. I worked out three times last week with two workouts being very good and one was kind of "Half Assed".

Perseverance - The dictionary has the following definition for perseverance:
–noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

NAHD = "Nutritional and Health Distractions", my new catch phrase for times when you could be swayed to the "dark" side. In all seriousness these are "opportunities" for failure where you need to remain focused and get your guard up a little bit. I had a couple of these instances this week and handled them VERY WELL.

NAHD #1 - Poker night last Monday. This is always an opportunity to go off the deep end and if I ever wanted to just GIVE UP poker night would afford the opportunity to do it. Now, with that being said, it was held at Matt's last week and Matt and Michelle did a great job providing a healthy option which was AWESOME, some cantaloupe, turkey, wheat bread, grapes and other healthy options. When the healthy option is there its much easier to stay focused. I will admit I had a couple of chocolate chip cookies in addition to the other healthy options but I WONT beat myself up about that at all.

NAHD #2 - Sunday Baptism. This was more about control and discipline than anything else. Pulled pork, taco salad, macaroni salad and french bread. I had some of each and even went back for a little extra taco salad (it was SO awesome - one of my favorites) but remained disciplined throughout the rest of the day to balance off the entire day and still stay under my 2000 calories goal. I passed on what looked like the BEST cake in the world. I wont KID you, I REALLY wanted some of that cake and ice cream and I also wanted to take the ENTIRE BOWL of taco salad and go hide in some closet somewhere and devour it ALL.

These type of things (NAHD) are going to happen and they aren't things you can just NOT go too so you have to practice keeping it together "between the ears". MENTAL TOUGHNESS and "Perseverance" really the key to my success right now and probably forever.

I look to make it another 6.2 pound week this week, that would put me at an even 32 pounds off for January - I'll take it baby. Think of the 5 pound bag of sugar you buy at the grocery store, 6 of those = WOW that is a lot... Better yet think of that 30 pound dumbbell you use for curls or shoulder presses. It really puts 30 pounds into perspective.

PS: My clothes are fitting much looser than before YEA...

Until next time - Keep the Faith and FIGHT THE FAT

4 comments:

Omega "3 Legged Dog" said...

Looks like you are growing some 'NAHD's' finally. Good job Bradley! Keep it up!

Eric

Crunch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Crunch said...

Way to go Brad! I like using a gallon of water for comparison. For some reason it's something people can really grasp on to in their minds. FOUR gallon jugs of water ... gone. Dude that is great. You are almost there. Stay strong.

TitanThirteen said...

Perseverance is hard. But in recognised where you are strong with it and weak with it, you are learning to use the strengths to defeat the weakness with it. Did that make sense? lol