Keep Ya Head Up: Divorce Yourself From the Fatties

Today's weigh-in: 297.8 (2.6 pounds down from last week)

The Cardinals
It's amazing to watch very smart sports writers opine that we're going to see how much the Cardinals regret not getting Oswalt signed. I wasn't aware that our starting rotation was in need of another starter. Two bad starts for Lance Lynn does not a reasonable sample size make. Chill the fuck out, guys. Where we were struggling was hitting and bullpen, and both of those performed tremendously over the weekend, with Jon Jay and Matt Carpenter back, even after Lance Lynn imploded yesterday

The Heat
I remember watching sports pundits the nation over at mid-season cry out for everything from breaking up the Big Three to firing Scott Spoelstra. Yeah. I guess that kind of knee-jerk idiocy gets clicks?

Becoming Less Fat
It seems like each week with the weight loss crusade, something new is imparted to me, and I'm able to refine this process better and better.

The big thing this week was dealing with a setback. From Tuesday to Thursday, I put a pound back on, and I wanted to put someone's head in a fucking vice. In the course of channeling my pain and anger, and drawing on the power of the Dark Side, a little voice cried out and insisted that instead of being all sulky and having a typical 'fattie' reaction (self-pity, 'this is never going to work,' giving up, all that shit), that I stop and analyze where I went wrong.

Wednesdays, I typically work from home, which means I'm moving around a lot less. I also typically eat out for lunch, and it's usually Subway. I ran out of time after work and didn't run. I experimented with making a homemade pizza with my son, and while I was under my caloric allotment for the day, I cut it very close.

None of those on their own would've done me in, but that perfect storm of bullshit probably combined into a Voltron of Fat and slapped a pound back on me.

But who knows? All I can do is learn from it and move on. I came back the next day and was down .8 pounds.

All of that led me to my next point, which is setting oneself up for success. I ate out a lot last week, which is anathema to consistent weight loss. I'm fat because I love food, and even more so because I love cramming it in my mouth. Going out to eat is an exercise in restraint, but I armed myself, every time, with my Windows Phone and used the MyFitnessPal application to research everything on the menu that I was considering, and managed to (mostly) behave myself over the weekend. It's tough, though, and I really wish we'd not eaten out as much as we did. If you're a junkie for fatty foods, putting yourself at fucking Cracker Barrel is not a good idea. Sure, I didn't succumb to temptation, despite the fact that everyone was pressuring me to eat like shit, but nor did it give me a real satisfying meal. Restaurants aren't there to help you lose weight, they're there to make as much money as possible, no matter what it does to your health.

The best way to not eat like shit and still not hate what you're eating is to make it your damn self. Odds are that you're fat because you're lazy, and if you want to lose the weight and keep it off, you gotta change things up in your life, and that means getting used to actually putting effort into some things.

But I digress ...

... my point here is that I bounced back. I didn't overreact and punish myself, nor did I throw in the towel, nor did I say, 'Well, I'll just go back on my diet on Monday.' All that kinda shit is for fatties, and I'm not one of them anymore. I got right back on the horse, and may have pushed it a little on the treadmill that night, but I was mad as hell.

The best part is that I'm now equipped with more experience and knowledge that's going to help me this week. I'm going to apply it, and I'm looking forward to adding more to my workouts. One of my long-term goals is to be at a fitness level equivalent to that of an Army Ranger. I've got family that's been in the Ranger program, and I've always looked up to them, so it seems like a fun long-term challenge. I figured this week that I might bench-mark where I am now relative to the fitness requirements, and once a week, re-rest and chart my progress until I'm there. I don't expect that I'll be anywhere near the requirements this week, but a year from now? Who knows? It seems like something that's worthwhile. And it'll come in handy when the revolution comes.

One last thing. Going to Cracker Barrel was good for one thing. It was interesting to watch the grossly obese folks, and all that little things they did to keep reinforcing their obesity. If you're trying to drop weight, go to a restaurant, pick a group of fat people and watch them all night. Try to pick out everything they're doing to reinforce their fatness, and you may identify some things that you still do that are holding you back.

One really last thing. I'm below 300, which was my first goal. Next up is getting below 290. I haven't been 280-something in YEARS, and I'm really pumped to get there. Being 280-something puts me within 100 pounds of my long-term goal weight, which, yeah, probably sounds insane to you, but for me it's a big deal (literally!)

So, how goes your weight loss? Anything to add here?

Anyway, thanks for reading!

-Blaine
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