I should.
Anyway I'm having this morning off from the hill. I don't want to overdo it. I will walk after work perhaps or have the day off and try and knock out the big one tomorrow. For anyone interested in the food I had a tomato and olive pasta last night with some baked eggplant.
I did have a nice steak and chips for lunch though.
I'm baking some sweet potato now to take to work. I've found that baking is a really easy and delicious way to cook veges, which I'm trying to eat more of. Microwaved frozen veges make me want to puke and are no way to live. Baking with salt, olive oil and perhaps some garlic and rosemary is a much better way to make veges that are suited to baking taste good!
I'm certainly feeling like I'm losing weight, which is why I snuck on the scales like a loony. I think I'm feeling the effects of ramping up the exercise over the last 3 weeks. That really is the key, and drives good feelings and good behaviour.
It's a long game though, which is why it needs to be a lifestyle choice rather than a diet. I can keep up eating more delicious veges as a lifestyle, because I enjoy them. But I can't keep up microwaved steamed veges - within 2 months I would sooner poke a spoon in my eye.
Similarly with exercise. One thing I've done in the past is go out too hard and burn myself out within, again, 2 or 3 months. You need to build it up and be able to keep it up. You also need to enjoy it, at least most of the time. Otherwise you won't do it. And you need to do it for the long haul - it needs to become a lifestyle ie the way you lead your life on an ongoing basis.
Pretty simple I guess. If you want to look like the fit, healthy guy, then you need to lead the sort of lifestyle you expect the fit and healthy guy to lead. Does he get shitfaced on a Friday night and eat pizza, or does he eat normally and get up on Saturday and go for some exercise, feeling and looking better for it?
That's my thinking anyway. Not sure why i'm writing so much today. I also posted a comment on Claire's year off the piss blog which I'll also post here. It was in response to her getting shitty about people who judge people who don't drink:
I've been on both sides of the fence. Probably most normal people following this blog interested in their own drinking have. But I tell you, the perspective I'm seeing now is really changing my perception of drinking, and drunks. It is not pretty. You are not better looking drunk. You are not wittier, even though you laugh at your own jokes. You do not dance better. Often enough, you are a disgrace. At least by the time the witching hour arrives, and you have been on it for 3 or 4 hours, you are drunken mess, whether or not you realise it. Conversations mean nothing. Words are slurred. Some men get aggressive or obnoxious. Some women cry. It is not how I remember it - not at all.
And it gets much less cool as you get older. Ever seen your mum so pissed she can't speak properly, blubbers, shags a random, and vomits in the sink? You wouldn't want to. And there is no difference.
But, having said that, Jamie's point about doing some crazy ass shit on the turps is true. I've had my wildest outings drunk, including with the ladies. From a man's perspective anyway, if you don't tend to hit it then often the lady you are with doesn't either, and perhaps her inhibitions are not as cut as they would be if you were drinking (which combined with your dutch courage can really go places).
I see the good things about drinking that I am missing - and there are many - as collateral damage to a greater war to improve my quality of life (including my fitness). For many, this sacrifice would not be worth it and I'm no holier than any of those people. I think there is no right or wrong with drinking. But not drinking is a choice, and it is the right one for me at this time as I'm on a year long fitness campaign.
People who are really down on you making that choice do really irritate, even though chanting "join us" is the natural reaction of a piss head (which I can say with some authority).
And it gets much less cool as you get older. Ever seen your mum so pissed she can't speak properly, blubbers, shags a random, and vomits in the sink? You wouldn't want to. And there is no difference.
But, having said that, Jamie's point about doing some crazy ass shit on the turps is true. I've had my wildest outings drunk, including with the ladies. From a man's perspective anyway, if you don't tend to hit it then often the lady you are with doesn't either, and perhaps her inhibitions are not as cut as they would be if you were drinking (which combined with your dutch courage can really go places).
I see the good things about drinking that I am missing - and there are many - as collateral damage to a greater war to improve my quality of life (including my fitness). For many, this sacrifice would not be worth it and I'm no holier than any of those people. I think there is no right or wrong with drinking. But not drinking is a choice, and it is the right one for me at this time as I'm on a year long fitness campaign.
People who are really down on you making that choice do really irritate, even though chanting "join us" is the natural reaction of a piss head (which I can say with some authority).
Great post mate!
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it! In terms of getting and staying fit you really have to get out of the diet mindset! Once you make the switch from diet to lifestyle it all becomes so much easier.
It no longer matters that you haven't lost 20kg in 2 weeks. ;-) Most people forget how long it took to get where they are health wise and expect to lose it all in next to no time.
With the lifestyle mentality it no longer matters how long it takes to lose it so long as you are making progress toward your ultimate goal.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers
Brett.
Brett
ReplyDeleteYes, which in part is why I didn't hop on the scales until I was in a solid routine. There is no point hopping on the scales and having a blubber or starving yourself after 1, 2 or 3 weeks. What is better I think is working up to a killer routine, making changes until you think you are doing everything and should be losing weight (ie two months later) and then hopping on to check your theory to make final tweaks. But in the end, my view of the world is that almost anything works, and the real test is whether or not you can keep it up for 6, 12, 24, 48 months and so on.