Scripture for thought....

           

                                                   

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you

remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

                                                                                                      

John 8:31-32

             This is true for all matters.  Whether you are Christian or not,  knowing the truth about something will truly set you free.  As I've said before, knowing the truth about how the human body functions will set you free to manipulate it and achieve all of your fitness goals!!  So work hard, have discipline, faith, and study about the body you wish to change :)

Calories? Hmmmmmmmm.....

             One of the most common questions that I'm asked about my weight loss,  in addition to what made me start, is what were the most vital aspects of my being successful.  Well,  my plan was actually pretty simple at its root.  It was based on two things.  One was increasing my physical activity and the other was watching my caloric intake, aka, how much food I ate.  I'm going to first discuss the matter of adjusting caloric intake.  Now, let me start by saying that I believe in being well informed concerning any project that you are about to undertake.  Before leaping into a weight loss program, I feel the individual should understand a little about the science surrounding how the body handles, nutrition, exercise, etc.  It takes the mysticism out of the whole thing and also keeps us from blindly following every plan that passes our eye.  You should be well informed on the basics behind the science of weight loss so you will be a more informed customer, patient, or help to someone else.  Ok, lets start by discussing calories.
              We hear a lot everyday about counting calories.  I mention it myself all the time.  How many of us truly understand what a calorie actually is?  Well, in its most basic definition, a calorie is a unit of energy.  It represents the amount of energy that it takes to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree celcius. It is what the human body uses to support everything it needs to purely survive, in addition to added requirements we place on it, aka exercise perhaps? lol.   Now, for our purposes, lets understand that a calorie is a calorie, no matter what its source is.  For instance, which is heavier, ten pounds of  rice or ten pounds of lead?  Well, of course the answer is that they both weigh the same. The only difference is that it will take more of the lighter substance to get to a certain weight than with the heavier substance.  A pound is a pound.  The same stands true for food.  What has more calories,  850 calories of red velvet cake or 850 calories of baked, skinless chicken breast?  Answer:  They're both the same.  The  only difference is that it may take one slice of the cake to get to  850 calories vs about 7 of the chicken breast.  See, there is a difference between the nutritional value of food vs the caloric value of food. The cake and the skinless chicken breast have different nutritional values, with the chicken obviously being more nutritious.  On the other hand they have exactly the same value in calories.   As far as the body is concerned,  its going to handle the calories the same way, whether they come from cake or skinless chicken breast.  I know this can be a lot to absorb so I'll continue in another post.  Stay "posted", lol....



To be continued.....
        

The old me? lol

What led me to finally take off the pounds for good continued....

                     This a continuation of my entry from Sept. 10th.  I had mentioned my discovery of all you can eat cafeterias while a student at the University of Miami.  Well, let me continue.  While a student at UM I definitely took advantage of the ready availability of food, lol.  I'm not going to mislead you by making you think I didn't really eat all that much.  To the contrary,  I was completely out of control to the nth degree.  In reality I knew that even then,  because I would always attempt to get to the Cafeteria when it first opened for breakfast because I was very self conscious concerning other students watching me as I engorged myself.  This is not an exaggeration but my typical breakfast would consist of 2 cheese omelets, 4 biscuits, sausage, bacon, hash browns, 2 to 4 doughnuts, and soda to wash it down.  Oh yeah, I would usually grab two more doughnuts before leaving.  That was only breakfast.
                    That was the time during which my weight began to skyrocket.  During college I could no longer shop in regular stores for clothes and was doomed to the selection found in the Tall and Big Mens shop.  Along with this came a collapse in my social life, admittedly worsened by me due to my being self conscious about my ballooning size.  My daily wardrobe consisted of some green surgical scrub pants and a green sweater.  I mean, I'd wear that every single day because it was all I had that would fit comfortably.  Its funny, when I reflect back on those times I always wonder why I didn't have the strength to make a change in light of my sad state of affairs socially.  You know something?  I actually did, lol.  During my junior year at UM I actually lost about 80 to 90 pounds but sadly gained all of it back by the time graduation came around.  Thats right, I've been the victim of yo yo dieting until my last loss of 160 pounds where I have kept it off for over 10 years, but I digress, lol......



To be continued......

Something to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm....

Scripture...

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.        Mathew 24:13



Losing large amounts of weight can be a grueling and at times frustrating process but if you are dedicated, disciplined and tough you will see your fitness quest to the end.  I myself ran into numerous problems as I was in the process of walking and dieting my way from 320 to 160 pounds.  I will need a specific blog post to talk about that and I will in the near future.  I can say though that there were many days when I thought that I just couldn't walk one more mile or pass up one more piece of cake.  Fortunately the scripture above, among other things, kept me stubbornly marching toward my goal.  So, when you feel like you're about to quit, meditate on the  above scripture and as Nike says, "just do it!!"

What led me to finally take off the pounds for good continued....

            All of my years in school, PE was always my most dreaded subject.  I can remember always being the last one picked for the sports teams, but once picked was always given the positions reserved for the so called, "fat guy".  For instance, in football I was always placed on the line to block, and in soccer I was always told to be in the goal box.  The logic behind that was the feeling that I would take up all the space in the goal, lol.  All of this is funny now but not necessarily back then:)  One positive result from my childhood experiences is that my physical shortcomings led me to focus my energies into academics.  The lack of social status led me to gain my "rep" via the academic rout.  When I look back, maybe I can at least consider that result from my obesity to be a blessing.

           During my senior year I was blessed to have won a full tuition academic scholarship to the University of Miami.  Once I matriculated I was thrilled to learn  that as a Miami Hurricane I would be the beneficiary of three square all you can eat meals.  Hmmmmmmm,  I bet you're just wondering what happened then aren't you?



To be continued......