Where you came from will get where you are going.

So over the past couple of days I have been going through some strange emotions. I have been learning that when you put on weight your fat stores memories. Or as brain pickers (psychiatrist) say that your fat remembers moods and as you lose the weight you can remember the depression that you were in that caused you to gain the weight in the first place. This is the reason why so many people can do good for a few weeks or months and then fall right back into the same patters they were in before.

I did not believe any of this until yesterday. Before I always thought I was just week and didn't have the will power to be successful. But yesterday I went through a real funk. It started off as missing my parents and then turned into being mad at them for not taking care of them selves and teaching me the correct eating and working out habits to be successful and then moved into a happiness this morning because it made me realize all that I was going through right now is because of what my parents taught me. I realized that because I am changing my future, my kids will not have to go through what I am going through right now. They are going to have healthy parents who will teach them good habits.

I know that it is good to focus on the good memories which is what I do most of the time. My parents were two of the most interesting, odd, crazy, loving, fun, spontaneous, caring, generous, and faithful persons to walk the earth. I am very grateful for the time I did have with them. I guess my point today is that we sometimes need to focus on what they did wrong and use it to make you stronger and to teach you what to do right. I am grateful now for everything they did do and everything they didn't do. It would have been easier if they had taught me good eating habits but it is making me a stronger man to learn them on my own because now I will never forget them and I will be able to use this to help many people in the future. I want to use it to help parents who are making the same mistakes change so there kids do not have to lose both their parents while they are still in their early 20's.

I love you guys ant thank you for all that you are doing for me. Thank you for your donations, your prayers and last but not least your motivation. It is forcing me to face the future and I am doing it with my head up getting ready for a bright future.

I lost 4 popunds this week. I am now up to 26 pounds.

This week was a good week. It started off a little slow because Thu and Fri I had meetings all morning so I did not get my big work out in those days. I was able to hit it at night for about 30 minutes but nothing to brag about. Sat I slept in and got up and went to the gym for about an hour. Sunday I went to church and then went out to a park for a birthday party and then played Tennis with my boy Miller. Then on Monday I met with John and we worked my upper body out and I got in about an hours worth of cardio. Tuesday I got up and played Tennis with Seth at BBR and we walked around the pond twice. Then I went home got my work clothes and headed up to the Southlake 24hour fitness. I hit the elliptical for 30 minutes and did a hundred crunches and then went to work. Once I got off work I went back up for my last chance workout before my weigh in this morning and I shot hoops for 20 minutes and then got on the elliptical for 10 minutes. That is all my body would let me do. Even with my first three days not so strong I was able to still lose 4 pounds this week. I am now at 406. My goal is to be below 400 next Wednesday when I weigh in. We also did my measurements and I have lost 3in in my stomach and 4in in my waist. I also lost 7% of my body fat. I am really pumped with the results I am getting.

I am going to add a new thing to the sight. I want to start keeping track of how much weight we are losing as a group. Let me know each week as you weigh in and I am going to do a running total of the weight you have lost. I am really excited at all the people who want to be healthy.

Also I want to play basketball Saturday morning. So if you are interested let me know and we will get a group together and play. If we don’t get enough we can play tennis. We will be at BBR in the morning playing Tennis at 7am. You should come out and join us. We will be there till 9:30. Have a blessed day.

I lost another 5 pounds wich adds up to 22 pounds now.

So I weighed in today and I have lost another 5 pounds, which adds up to 22 pounds in the last month. I thought we were doing measurements today but we are doing them next week. I am also going to post a new picture next week as well.

I am starting to feel a lot better and can tell that I am getting more energy. I played Tennis with my boy Seth on Tuesday mooring for an hour and I had a lot more energy that I normally would. We played for an hour and then I rode my bike for 30 minutes. And today I worked out with John (trainer) for an hour and then I did water aerobics for another hour and swam for 30 minutes.

My last day at Dunkin in May 29th and I have a couple of things lined up one is definite and the other is the one I am hoping for. Either way they are both part time and will allow me to focus more on losing weight.

For those of you who will be sponsoring me that is when I will start to need the money. I have been keeping the money I have gotten so far in Paypal or my bank account. I did purchase 10 more sessions with John. I am meeting with him once a week so he can push me and help me with all my goals. I have paid up my cell phone bill for five months and my insurance is paid up till December. I am trying to get as much done as possible while I still have a full time job. Through all of this my goal is to be as transparent as possible. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I want to be held accountable.

So starting next week we are going to start scheduling some events to get everyone involved. One of my main goals it to help get my friends in shape along with me. It will also help push me and make my journey a lot more fun. So if the weather allows it we will start playing Tennis on Tue and Thu mornings starting at 7am and play till around 9 to 9:30. People can come and go as they please and stay as long as they want. I will stay till around 9:30 and then head to the gym afterwards. This is just one of the ways I want to get everyone involved. If you have any ideas or have something you would like us do let me know and we can schedule a time for it.

Thank you guys so much for your support through all this. All the encouraging words and prayers are huge. Love you and hope you are having a blessed day.

I lost 5 pounds this week. I am up to 17 pounds now.

Met with John my trainer this morning and all is going well. I lost 5 pounds this week. We worked on my legs this morning and he is not a nice guy anymore. lol No pain no gain. He also showed me a bunch of stretches and some calisthenics to help stretch out my body before and after my work out. I also used the money that I have gotten from all of you supporting me and I purchased 10 more secessions with him. I will be working out with him every Wednesday morning from here on out.

Overall things are going great. I am getting some sponsors. I still need a lot more but God is opening up doors left and right to make this stuff happen. I am looking for a part time job so if you here of anything let me know. I want to get into a positive work environment out of all day temptation at a donuts shop which I still have not touched since I started the program. I will rule at the temptations on The Biggest Loser. Lol Thank you guys so much for your support and your prayers. Have a blessed week.

Also tonight we are going out to TCC in Hurst and playing Tennis at 8pm if anyone wants to come. I have a few extra rackets if you want to come.

Do you love who you are?

I was looking in the the mirror the other day and I realized that I was not happy with who I am. I am not talking about what I look like but who I am. There is a huge difference. If you are my size you need to not like what you see physically. That is one of the things that is driving me to work out. What I realized is that I was not happy with the person I was becoming and that needed to change. If you can not look in the mirror, deep into your soul and be happy with who you are you need to do whatever it takes to get to where you can.

What I mean by this is I had come to a point to where I was just existing. I had lost the drive to become great and that scared me. I would go to work and then come home and watch TV or just hang out on the computer. Also I had let my self image get so low that I didn't see myself worthy of being great or accomplishing anything worth while. I had let myself be broken by what society thinks is successful or beautiful.

I want to let you know that we are all beautiful. God showed me through revelation on the next few days, that no matter how we look or where we come from we are all beautiful and special in the eye's of God. We have to get to where we are happy with our self based on who God wants us to be and not what we think the world wants us to be.

Health and being fat is a whole different story. Our bodies are a living Temple for God so we must take care of them. This is something that I have been in denial for years. If yo don't love who you are as a person you will never be able to succeed because you will never feel worthy. Your self image will drive you to become who you want to be. It is driving me to become a better person and achieve the goals that I am going after because I know I deserve it. I didn't feel worthy enough to focus on myself for years but now I know that I am worthy and I owe to God. So are you. God loves you and you are beautiful the way you are but you owe it to yourself to be healthy. Chose to live.

I will weigh in tomorrow and will post my results. Have a great day.

So I had my morning weigh in and I lost 9.5 pounds this week.

I started off my morning with my Protein shake. I found out that if you take Sugar Free Fat Free Cheesecake Pudding and put it in your vanilla shake it is amazing. It blew me away how good it is. I then went to the gym and met with my trainer John at the Keller 24Hour Fitness. If anyone needs a trainer let me know he is amazing. Great caring guy but knows how to push the heck out of you. He weighed me in and I am down to 420.5 which is 9 pounds down from last week. We then had a good hour work out in and then I finished up at he gym with an hour water aerobics class which whipped mine and my roommates butt. I then swam for about 15 minutes and then went home. I had a protein bar as a snack and then headed to Aunt Susan's house to eat lunch which was a chicken salad sandwich and a salad that was amazing. It had cranberry's, sliced almonds, feta cheese, and a great low fat vinaigrette dressing. We then walked 1.25 miles in her neighborhood and now I am going to take a nap. Hope everyone is having a great healthy week.
Gene

First week with the Bodybugg.

Wednesday
I met with John (Trainer) and Aunt Susan at the Keller 24 hour fitness. She purchased me the new Bodybugg and the wrist watch that goes with it. He set me up on a 1,800 to 2,000 calorie diet and set my daily goal to burn 4,500 calories which I have done every day since I got the Bodybugg. After that I hit the weights and walked a mile on the treadmill. It was a good workout.

Thursday
I worked in the morning and then as soon as I got off I went home and changed and the headed out to be on the Angie Strader Show on Wishuponahero.com. It went really well and had some viewer feedback and was able to get a lot of encouragement out of the show. I did not get a workout in with all the stuff going on but I still burned 4,800 calories for the day.

Friday
I had a steady day at work and then when I got off work I headed out to the Keller 24 hour to sign up for lessons with John. I will work out with him on Wednesday mornings at 8am. I then got on the treadmill with plans to walk a mile but after I finished the first mile I still felt great so I walked a second mile. I was still feeling pretty good so I decided to keep going. I walked 3.1 miles (5K) and burned over 900 calories in one hour. I felt great and could have gone longer but my feet were starting to hurt. I ended the day with over 5,800 calories burned.

Saturday
We had an extremely busy day at work and as soon as I got off I headed straight for the gym. I was already tired from work once I got their but I was determined to get in some kind of a workout. I did 2 miles on the bike and a mile on the treadmill. I then went and sat in the sauna for 15 minutes and then went home to go to bed. I did not get a great workout in but I still burnt 5,600 calories for the day.

Each day so far I have kept my caloric intake under my goal of 2,000 calories. The best part is that it isn’t that hard to do because when you are eating healthy 2,000 calories is a lot of food. It is hard working at the donut shop but so far I am on day 4 without sugar, soft drinks, fast food, or anything fried. I will be working and totally forget that I am doing this and start to grab a donut and then remind myself of the bigger picture and I win the battle. I know that my overall goal is more important than a temporary satisfaction. It is not like most of the bad stuff really tastes good; it is just that my taste buds had gotten used to it. Water starts to taste good once you get used to drinking it.

What makes it easiest for me is Tuna, because I love tuna. I have been getting up in the mornings and having cornflakes for breakfast with 2% Milk and then at work for a snack I am eating some fruit. I am mixing it up with bananas, oranges, apples, pears, and strawberries. Also for my snack I will eat a Yoplait light yogurt. Then a few hours later for lunch I will eat a tuna sandwich. Then I will have a protein shake for my second snack and end dinner with some steamed chicken breast and some steamed vegetables. Overall it is a lot of food and actually taste pretty good. I am getting my balance of proteins, carbs, and fat. My goal is to learn as much about nutrition as I can over the next year so once I get to where I am healthy I can use it to help others.
Have a blessed day and let me know if you want to get together and work out with me.
Thaks
Gene