The 55 Pound Journey – Part 2

Continued From “The 55 Pound Journey – Part 1”

Now you know what you have been eating and if you were like me, you are shocked at all the “healthy” foods are actually junk. It’s time to take the big step and make the change. This is one of the hardest things I have ever done. No more drive-thru, No more donuts from the gas station, No more vending machines and the real hard one, No more soda. I wasn’t able to go cold turkey on this and I don’t expect anyone to do so either. In my opinion, the fast you stop, the faster you start back up again. Ease into it. Go ahead and have a soda once in awhile or grab a donut if you really need to. Let your body and mind adjust to the change, you will need it.

Just with the change in calories, most people will notice an immediate change. If you are like you, the weight will start falling off right away just with watching your calories and not overeating. But, that fat drop won’t keep going without additional changes. I had to go back and ask myself why I was doing this. I had two major answers. The first was my kids. I wanted to be able to play with my kids and as they are getting older and faster and I couldn’t hardly keep up anymore. The second reason was hunting. I was really getting tired of being so tired in the woods or fields. I hated having to stop at the top of that small hill to catch my breath. I got tired of only being able to drag that small deer for a few yards at a time. I really got tired of getting all sweaty on a cold morning and then freezing later. I now know it’s time to fix that. This is the part that everyone has the hardest time with, working out.

Working out takes up time which all of us Average folk don’t have much of. But it’s not as hard as you think. You don’t need a big gym membership or a bunch of high dollar equipment. Everything you need is what you are trying to fix, your body. I am a firm believer in body weight core workouts like push-ups, planks, burpees, squats and so on. There is one piece of equipment that I like the best and that’s a pull-up bar. Put a couple of those up around the house or in the garage and use them every chance you get. I try not to walk by or under one without doing a few pull-ups. Don’t have to kill yourself, just a few to keep things pumping. There are hundreds of “specialized” workouts out there for slimming this down and chiseling that into a god like piece of artwork. But nothing beats all around fitness. You see all those infomercials on TV about spending 20 minutes a day and look like that model. Well, they are kinda right. A workout is what you make of it. You can go to the gym and walk around, throw some iron around and walk out of there two hours later feeling all pumped or you can stay home and workout for 20 minutes. Granted the 20 minutes at home won’t be a walk in the park. In that 20 minutes you need to be pushing yourself to the limits and doing it non-stop. For example, we can pick out several core exercises and make a 20 minute program you won’t be able to walk away from but will be better than most 2 hour sessions in the gym. Let’s try 3 sets of push-ups, pull-ups, squats, planks and dips. Those are 5 basic workouts. Now do a single set of each one without stopping between and do that 3 times. As far as how many reps to do with each, that’s up to you. If you can drop and give me 20 push-ups right now, then make your push-up set be 12-15. If you can do that once a day, after a week you will start noticing your body changing. But, there will be some pain involved. You can live with that as long as you progress.