Finding time.

Weekly Stats
Current: 228.6
Weekly Loss: .4
To Go: 53.6
Total 96.4

The weight loss this week was quite the disappointment. When I weighed myself on Saturday, I was down 3 lbs for the week and was one lbs away from having lost 100 lbs. I expect the scale to be up a bit on Sunday since I don't work out, but Monday I am usually at least what I was on Saturday if not even more. To top it off, I went out walking in the cold this morning and went about 5 miles. Maybe the sweat froze to my body and weighed me down! Well, I will have to wait a week or two to see the 100 lbs milestone. At least I didn't gain.

I am often asked how I am losing the weight and I have talked a bit about this before. Exercise in and of itself is good for your health, but for weight loss in and of itself, it can be counter productive. The reason being is that working out will often increase your appetite. Often you feel you are justified in eating more since you are working out. However if you don't watch what you eat, it is easy to undo in one unwise food choice what you just spent an hour working out to burn.

On the other hand, just restricting calories can be counter productive as well. You not only lose fat, but in the process you will probably lose muscle as well. If you then resume your former eating habits, when you gain back, you don't gain the corresponding muscle back, but probably a higher percentage of fat. This makes each attempt at losing weight harder. It is really important then to both exercise for health and muscle tone as well as eating healthy and watching the calorie intake so the weight will come off.

This brings me to finding time to exercise. It is important to establish a time that works for you. I have found that getting up at 5 in the morning is best for me. Now as those who know me, I am not a morning person. I cannot get right out of bed. My good wife can get right up out of bed and be ready to exercise in 5 minutes. Me on the other hand, it takes me at least 20 minutes to get ready. I have to establish things like who I am, where I am and what I was going to do. I am only half kidding about this. I have to get a bright light on just to let my body know it is time to get going. So why do I choose this time to get up. It's because I have yet to have someone need my attention at 5am! The kids have never needed my help, the phone doesn't ring, I am free to get done what I need to do. I will even get up at 4am on occasion if I have to be somewhere early. Is it easy? Heck no! But it is easier as I have made it a habit. Some days, I even wake up before the alarm goes off and drag myself out of bed. Also being in better shape and being more healthy has led to better sleep patterns at night. It has also made it easier to go to bed at a decent hour because I am more than ready to go to sleep.

Find a time that works for you, but consider getting up early and making exercising a priority! If I can do it, so can you. Good luck Mike and Sarah as you start your training this week for the half marathon. Everyone else, keep up the good work on your goals to being more healthy! Hang in there and I will too.