Comment

Comment by Jon Zanone on May 29, 2010 at 9:09pm

Ralph -
I retired from the AF in 2003 @ 177 lbs (I'm 5'8"). By the summer of 2003, I was over 200 lbs. All these tips are great, and from my perspective, portion control and water are the biggest things to monitor. It sounds like you've gotten past the hardest part though - the mental part. I just got tired of being fat. I started going to the gym, and didn't stop. I found something I loved (cycling) and supplemented it with weight training. Since I've gotten my dog, I use that as motivation to at least get out and go for a walk. You can do this. You've passed the biggest hurdle - you mind. Keep us updated - I'm rooting for you!

Comment by Brian McCarrie on May 29, 2010 at 6:04pm

Hey Ralph, just checking in. How's it going?

Comment by Brian McCarrie on May 26, 2010 at 8:00am

Hey Ralph, some cereals have tons of calories, I used to eat Raisin Bran every day, then I looked at how much sugar is in it! Now I eat Cinnamon Life, Honey Nut Cheerios or Kashi Go Lean. That Kashi Go Lean is pretty good and it's got a decent amount of protein! Keep going man!

Comment by Ralph Clark on May 26, 2010 at 6:11am

The food log has already helped me see one of my problems, portion control. I had a bowl of Great Grains with blueberries and almonds. I poured a bowlful of cereal and the serving size was 3/4 of a cup. I am already at 850 calories for the day. Ouch.

Comment by Nicole Odell on May 25, 2010 at 9:58pm

Hi Ralph! Brian's comments are solid. A food log (like you plan to use) can make a huge difference. It's great you are looking to make changes to your lifestyle! I look forward to following your progress and seeing you out and about at all these cool things we have available to do here in the Pikes Peak region!
Cheers,
Nicole

Comment by Ralph Clark on May 25, 2010 at 8:28pm

Brian and Allen, Thanks for the comments. Allen, I will watch for you June 2nd; stop me if you see me. Brian my next blog will contain how well I followed your advice. Thanks again.

Comment by Allen Beauchamp on May 25, 2010 at 2:35pm

Ralph,

Not only are you an *excellent* photographer, you now are my online hero!

You rock man. That's hard stuff to type no doubt and I applaud you for it.

So...Matt Benassi has me committed to losing my extra as well, so that sometime this Summer I can be in race-promoter-course-official shape.

You are not alone...you are just the first to really put your goals out there and ask for help.

We'll be seeing eachother @the races and I have no doubt that you'll achieve your goals. Now, knowing that I'll have to see you EVERY race...I think I might have a bit of extra motivation to achieve my own!

Cheers,

Allen

Comment by Brian McCarrie on May 25, 2010 at 1:31pm

Hey Ralph, I admire you for putting it all out there in your post. I think it's great that you want to loose weight. Here's a few things that I've done in the past to loose a few pounds.

1. Keep a food diary. Do this for at least a week. Really get a good snapshot of what you are eating. A lot of people have no idea why they gained weight because they really have no idea of what or how much they are eating.

2. Once you've got your food written down, take a look back and go after the low hanging fruit. What I mean by this is, try to eliminate some of your bad food choices with healthy alternatives. For example, sometimes when I get home from work, I head right for the snak bag and down a bunch of chips. It doesn't take a nutritionist or health guru to tell that this is bad. So what I do is, I keep an apple or banana with me so I can eat it on the way home from work. I get home, no cravings.

3. I also discovered that I eat way too many carbs and not enough protein. So I try to replace some of the carbs that I eat with a protein alternative. Mid morning I may have some cottage cheese or a protein shake.

4. Get on an eating schedule. Breakfast at the same time everyday, a mid morning snack, same time every day, Lunch at the same time, mid afternoon snack at the same time and then a normal dinner. You'll be eating all day long, you'll never be hungry and you won't have any cravings.

5. Get out the door. I get up early to exercise on most days but also some days when I come home from work, I'm spent. The best thing for me to do in this situation is to get outside and do something. It could be to walk the dog, do some yard work, go for a short run or bike ride, anything, I just try get out in the evening.

6. Enter some kind of race and train for it. We're pretty fortunate, there is always some kind of event going on in Colorado Springs. Pick one and go for it. Then pick another. Maybe decide to run a whole race series. The Colorado Springs Grand Prix has events all summer long. Then there's the Fall Series after that and the Winter series too. You could really pick events that will keep you going until next Spring time and then do it all over again. Pretty cool.

7. Maybe the most important thing is to make a conscious decision every day to reach your goal. I get up at 5:00am most mornings to either go swim or run. People ask me how I do it. Here's how. I have a goal. It's a big goal. I want to be an Ironman. I want to qualify for and participate in the Ironman Championship in Hawaii. That goal is a long way off. But sometimes when that alarm goes off and I don't feel like getting up, I actually lay there and I ask myself. "Do you want to be an Ironman or not?" Then I get up.

Hopefully I didn't over do it here with all of this stuff. I'm big fan of anyone who wants to make a difference in their life for the better. I know you can do it. I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress. Good Luck!

Oh, one more thing. Water, drink a lot of it. Not all at once. But have a water bottle with you all day long and drink.