I’m not dead. I’m just distracted.  I had a nice vacation, attended a family reunion and had a business trip.  I was gone for nearly two weeks without sleeping in my own bed.

What has happened since last post?  I’ve relaxed a little on my fitness goals since winning my weight loss contest in June.  Instead of running a half marathon I ended up running a 5K.  I was pleased with my time of 27:41, which comes out to less than 9 minutes per mile!  My next goal is a 26 minute 5K.  I’ve had a nice long break since the race and am ready to get back into the swing.

I’ve also slipped on my eating habits but I’m aware of how bad it makes my body feel so I am ready to switch back to my healthy habits.  My focus will be to avoid sugar and bad carbs and increase my vegetable intake.

I’ve tried to act like an authority on this blog because that is what I want to be but it’s hard to fake something I’m not.  The best thing for me will be to treat this blog as a fitness journal until I really am an expert and have reached my ultimate goals.

I will post about once a week with updates.

Weight: 235 lbs.

Goal for next week: 232 lbs.  Run 3x.

I’ve been most successful at weight loss when I’ve experienced changes in lifestyle. Times when my physical activity level is much higher without forcing myself to exercise.  I need to become a more active person.  Don’t just choose to run more but join a running club.  Join a sports team.

There have been moments of frustration where I’ve told myself that I need to join the military so that someone else will set my priorities for me and force me into a regimen.  I tend to excel in those types of situations but I usually don’t enjoy the loss of freedom.  What I really need is to develop my own self discipline.

If you’ve ever said, “I don’t have time to exercise.”  then this post is for you.  You would never say, “I don’t have time to go to work!”  We all have the same amount of time each day.  Some of us do have quite a few responsibilities but ultimately we get to choose the priority of our responsibilities.  We all have time to be more active and eat less it just isn’t a priority.  Going on The Biggest Loser and working out all day with a personal trainer reallly isn’t necessary.  I’m sure that would speed up the process but it just isn’t realistic, now is it?

If having less body fat is a goal of yours and you want to be thinner you need to envision what your life will be like in order to maintain that body.  What priorities need to be rearranged?  In most cases, the changes doesn’t need to be a big changes.  If we cut 300 calories per day out of our diet it is like eating one less slice of pizza or 20 oz soda.  In one year that small change can make a 30 lbs difference.