Losing weight is hard, especially since I had so many bad habits that I needed to break and so many new habits I needed to form. Over the course of time, losing weight becomes easier as habits are broken and formed, but fundamentally, losing weight is not easy. To me, maintaining is even more difficult than losing. While I have formed great habits in regards to eating healthy and working out, its just too easy to fall back into the old habits that got me overweight in the first place…and this leads me to being motivated by fear.

I am afraid that I can fall back into overeating, binge eating, emotional eating, skipping workouts and so on. I fear that I can become what I once was. This fear has been the greatest motivating force in my life for the last 3 months. I love the fact that I have something fueling my fire, buts its a terrible way to live. Living in fear of anything adds a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress, which we all know is bad for your health. Its a vicious cycle.

Having this fear makes me believe that, while I have transformed my outward appearance, I still have some work to do to my mentally. It makes me believe that sub-consciously, my brain still acts as if I’m overweight. If I really want to transform my life, I need to work on my brain and form new thinking habits, habits that make me believe that I am healthy and not overweight. I will know that I have accomplished this when I no longer feel the fear looking over my shoulder.

For now, I will harness the motivation that fear gives me and continue on my path to a healthy life, which includes working on my state of mind and having belief in myself that I’m not that same person I once was.

Do you have a sense of fear?  Does it motivate you?

Acceptance
The first time I got injured working out, I tried to ignore it. I could deal with it and continued to workout. This turned out to be an awful idea as it made it worse. Since then, when I get injured, I accept that I am injured and give the pain the respect it deserves.

Rest
As mentioned above, taking time off and resting is the best way to handle an injury. Pushing myself and working out with an injury just exacerbates the problem and setting me back even more.

Understanding
Taking time to understand my injury, what my injury is and why I got injured helps to prevent that injury in the future. Did I have bad form performing a particular lift? Did I push myself too hard during a run? Was I using the wrong equipment/gear? Understanding the injury has helped me figure out how to make my workouts better and prevent future injury.

Learn
Going hand-in-hand with understanding, learning from the injury is important. If doing something injuries me, I should take a lesson and not do that again. Learning why I got injured has also helped me push myself and try different things that I probably wouldn’t have.

I love working out and have come to love running. While I hope I never get injured, I know that injuries happen. Its part of the process. I hope that I can learn from my injuries, take necessary steps to prevent it in the future and keep forging on.

*Disclaimer* – I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. If you have a serious injury, please seek medical attention.

Some Amazing things happened to me in 2011:

• The birth of my first child. This changed my life in more ways than I ever expected. I am grateful to have such a wonderful addition to my life.
• Lost about 30 pounds in 2011
• Ran in my first real fitness events
• Took up running and now I’m addicted

2011 was also the year of learning for me:

• Learned that I can push myself to wake up early and get a great workout in
• Learned that I like love running (even in the cold)
• Learned that being a father is really something special
• Learned that I can’t take any breaks if I really want to be healthy…gotta work at it every day

What I need to work on in 2012:

• I need to be more diligent in my eating. In 2011 I would get on a real nice eating streak and then cave for a week or so. I need to limit the amount of times I fall off the wagon
• I need to mix up my workout routine. Early 2011 I was all about lifting and didn’t do much else. Late 2011 I was all about running and didn’t do much else. I would like to mix it up and incorporate both
• I need to push myself harder and further than ever before. I want and need to be the best me

2011 was a great year but I know that 2012 will be even better. I am dedicated, motivated and willing to make it possible.

That personification worked for my friends and family. But it really wasn’t working for me. I was able to get by, but I wasn’t improving myself. I knew I wanted more out of life than to be that funny guy that everyone knew was overweight. The more I perpetuated the funny guy, the more ashamed I became of my weight and health. It was difficult to break that mold as everyone loved the funny fat guy….except me.

Fast forward…

I lost 50 pounds and haven’t lost my sense of humor. Looking back, I’ve realized that the funny guy persona was less about being funny and more about deflecting thoughts and discussions about my health. It feels great to just be me and not have to develop and live up to a fabricated persona. The one positive aspect that I have taken away from that time in my life is that my friends and family loved me regardless of my outward appearance. They love me the same and will be able to for many more years. That would have been cut short if I continued down my health destruction path.

I’ve left that persona behind, no longer need it. I’m more focused than ever to be myself, be healthy and created laughs well into the future.

This was a tough lesson to learn. The first time I failed was my first full weekend after starting my weight loss journey. I ate like I have never eaten before. It felt good at the time, but the scale begged to differ. It would have been easy for me to quit right there and tell myself that I can’t do it. That I can’t eat right and lose weight. It would have been easy for me to shut it down, return to my usual habits and continue to gain weight. But I refused; I picked myself up and forged ahead.

I soon learned that falling down is all part of the experience. It comes with the territory. Once I understood that, I took more risks and pushed myself. I knew that I would fall down. But I also knew that I would get back up and keep going. Failing isn’t a bad thing, in fact I think its necessary. To truly understand my limits, to learn and to grow, I know that I need to push my boundaries. In doing that, failures will happen. When I push those limits and fall down, I take a few moments to understand why, learn from it and keep going.

I think too many people go into weight loss with the idea that it will all go smoothly and the pounds will melt off. When they encounter a bump in the road, they get bummed out and revert to their old ways. I see too many people that do well for 2 weeks, a month and then gain all the weight back plus some. They fell down along the way and didn’t get back up. Getting back up is, for me at least, the key to losing weight and living the life I want to live.

Know that falling down and getting up is within me, I have been able to push my limits even further and experiment with different things. What time of day I eat, what I eat, how much water to drink, when to workout etc. Its been fun to learn my body and how it reacts to different scenarios. Most of the experiments are failures but in failure comes knowledge.

I know that I will fall down and fail dozens of times in the future. But I will also get back up!

There are tons of people going through the same things I am going through and they are all willing to sit in my corner and cheer me on. The people that I follow on Twitter (and follow me) has proven to be a valuable resource and tool in my effort to lose weight. The value of the information they share is priceless and I am grateful for each person that takes the time to share what they are doing to fight the good fight. But it goes beyond that. Real relationships are being formed on Twitter than have a positive impact.

If I am having a bad day, I know that I can turn to Twitter, and describe that my motivation for exercising is at an all-time low. I know that in a matter of minutes, I will have several people give me the pep talk I need. There are people in my corner, people that I have never met in person, people who really care and they want to see me succeed. To me, this is amazing and something I don’t take for granted.

I learn so much about health and weight loss everyday from Twitter. More importantly, I learn about people and how powerful it is to have people who care rooting for me. Its hard not to join the cause and help out as much as I can. When I see someone on Twitter who needs a boost, I make sure I reach out to them and let them know that they can do it. That there are people out there who care and want them to achieve their goals. This creates a very positive and powerful relationship between people who have a common goal and share the same struggles.

I urge anyone trying to lose weight to get involved in social networks and form relationships with other people trying to lose weight and get fit. The positive energy is undeniable and amazing.

There are way too many people that I could mention, however, I want to take a moment to mention someone who I met on Twitter that has become a friend. That person is Miller (@retroactiv_). I was in a bad mood one day after a bad experience at the gym and I made a small comment on Twitter. He reached out to me and gave me the positive pep talk I needed to keep going. The amazing part of this story is that I had never met or talked to him before. He reached out cause he saw someone who needed motivation. I am glad to call him a friend and know that by pushing each other we will reach our goals.

The moral of this post is that you don’t have to go at it alone. There are people out there willing to help and be there with you!

Every time I go to rent a movie, I am deeply tempted to order the very thing that helped contribute to being overweight. As I enter McDonald’s with the thoughts of what comedy I’m going to rent, I smell the sweet aroma of freshly cooked fries and unbelievable, yet gross, dollar menu McDouble Hamburgers.

Its extremely difficult to rent a movie without wanting to stuff my face with the worst food America has to offer. Yet, I persevere and endure for the sake of a good comedy. I know that its just a matter of time before I potentially cave to temptation. I am declaring, from this moment on, that I will never go to a McDonald’s again to rent a movie. The easiest way to control a problem is to avoid temptation. For example, if a recovering alcoholic wants to avoid a relapse, they should not visit a bar…even if they are only ordering water to drink. Its just a matter of time until temptation wins. Avoiding temptation is, for me, the best way to not be tempted.

I just learned that a Redbox has been installed at the grocery store that I shop at. This is where I will be renting movies from now on. This is a welcome surprise and one that will help me make better decisions. Thank you Redbox…Horrible Bosses is a funny movie!

Preparation is the difference between:

• Eating an apple for a snack rather than finding a gas station and chowing down on a Milky Way. B
• Bringing a healthy lunch to work rather than finding the local pizzeria and having two huge slices of pie.
• Walking around the gym aimlessly wasting time and getting in a quick and effective workout

Preparation is a key element to weight loss.

When I first started to lose weight, I was ill prepared. I woke up in the morning and made a half attempt to pack a lunch but was never really satisfied because I was running late to work. I go to the gym and decided ad hoc what I was going to workout. I didn’t bring any snacks to workout so I found myself in the aisles of 7-Eleven looking for something “healthy” to eat. Each week, I got a little bit better at preparing and overtime, I became and expert at preparing myself for the next day/week and planning out what I was going to eat as well as my exercise routine.

On Sundays, my wife and I make a dinner menu for the week to come and go grocery shopping. The menu also includes several lunch options to bring to work during the week as well as a litany of healthy snacks. This may sound trivial, but planning out your week menu and only purchasing the food for that menu helped me not binge eat on crap food at home; because there was no crap food on the week’s menu, there was no crap food at home.

When I first started experimenting with preparation, I wasn’t very good at it. I forgot things, or I prepared the wrong things. Its a lot like weight loss. I had to practice at it, tweak the method and find what worked for me. Just like anything else, once I got good at it, it became a habit and is now a part of my daily routine.

Preparation is an essential tool for my weight loss. Try it out!

I’m getting tired of reading health experts and other weight loss bloggers criticizing the method people lose weight as well as the emotion people go through while losing weight. If you spend anytime reading health/weight loss/fitness articles online you will see that there is a common thread. Everyone thinks their method of losing weight is the only way to do it. I’m not going to take time to list out any specific examples cause they are plentiful. Just surf around the net a bit and you’ll see that everyone has an opinion about how to lose weight.

I somewhat understand so called experts, because they are pushing products or methods to earn money. They are going to go with what sells, I get it. Although, I think they would be doing everyone a service to not trash other methods than the one they are pushing. What really gets me going is other weight loss bloggers criticizing people who are in the same boat as them. I lost weight by calorie counting, but I know that there are thousands of other methods that are just as effective. I’m not going to trash those other methods. It just so happens that calorie counting worked for me. I’ve said (and wrote it) a thousand times….find what works for you and perfect it.

But the biggest issue I have is when other weight loss bloggers criticize others for the emotions they are experiencing while losing weight. Many people who are trying to lose weight experience it at a very emotional level. The ups and downs of the mental state has been called a journey. There is something around every corner when trying to lose weight. In my opinion, losing weight is a journey. There is a start and there is a destination and you don’t really know the course you are taking between start and finish.

I appreciate all of the weight loss bloggers who put their lives online to discuss their journey. I read thousands of articles a week from weight loss bloggers and I love every minute of it. There are as many methods and emotions as there are weight loss blogs. Everyone has their own method of losing weight and dealing with their emotions. I also appreciate that people may have a difference of opinion on how to lose weight and can offer their insight into situations that one may come across during their journey. What I don’t appreciate is people criticizing others for how they are losing weight and the emotions they are experiencing.

Please don’t stop having an opinion, but please stop telling people that your opinion is better than others. I feel that we (weight loss blogging community) are all in this together. We are all trying to better ourselves and need all the support we can get. But we also offer a ton of support. It hurts our community when someone wants to better themselves and they get trashed for doing so. I love reading someones opinion on their blog when they offer insight, suggestions, guidance etc. I get a bit angry when their insightful blog post turns into a self-indulging editorial. But then again, its your blog, write what you want.

Big props go to everyone who is trying to lose weight and get up every morning ready to fight the good fight. Keep writing inspiring and motivating blog posts, they mean a lot to a lot of people. Please ignore the haters.

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I have an amazing support system at home as well as online. The blogging and Twitter relationships I’ve made with the weight loss community are amazing. I get motivation and inspiration daily through my network of other people trying to lose weight. However, its still up to me to get out there, move more and eat less. If you ever sneak a peek at any infomercial or general weight loss product, their pitch is that losing weight is easy. All you have to do is buy their product and use it passively and your fat will melt off…right before your eyes! Unfortunately, anyone who has tried to lose weight knows this isn’t the case.

I had a rough “eating” weekend this past weekend. I went a little overboard with food and the scale paid the price. I knew that what I was eating wasn’t good but I took responsibility for it. It was the decision I made. I also know that to make it right, I need to get back on track. I need to take responsibility for the food I ate. No one is going to workout for me. I must do it.

Taking responsibility for my actions and understanding that if I was going to lose weight and get healthy was a powerful and transforming moment in my life. Weight loss became something that I had power over. No one can take if from me. I was in control. This thought and understanding struck something within me and it allowed me to move forward in this struggle. Knowing that I posses the keys to my health is what kickstarted my weight loss and keeps me going today. There aren’t too many things in my life that I am in control of (external factors for example), however, I am in control of what/when I eat and when/how I workout.

This also puts a ton of pressure on myself. I have no one else to blame if I fail. I can’t point a finger at anyone and I certainly don’t wan to disappoint myself.  This helps keep me on track.

Too many people blame others or something for their weight gain or lack of weight loss. This is simply a case of excuses. I know that if you turn inward and use the strength within, you can lose weight and get in control of your health.