My plan for getting healthy and fit

So, “tomorrow” didn’t come as soon as I thought. Between work getting crazy and me getting sick, I’ve been swamped.

Excuses aside, here’s the next part of healthy lifestyle plan.

After deciding to not only lose weight but to get back to a healthy lifestyle, I outlined how I lost 30 pounds in six months last year. My method included better eating habits but no real exercise. While that formula can be effective for losing weight (and thus making you healthier), it is not the best way to improve your overall health.

So, here’s my plan:

1. Exercise: I’m up at 5 a.m. and in the exercise room by 5:15 a.m. I’ll do light cardio on the bike or treadmill and finish with weights. As I build up, I’ll increase my weight training. In the end, though, I’ll have only 45 minutes to give to exercise. But that’s better than nothing.

2. Eating: This will be strictly a calorie-counting exercise. I can eat whatever I want, within reason, so long as I’m careful to watch my calorie consumption. Once you are accustom to counting calories (or Weight Watcher points) then it becomes second nature.

3. Foods to avoid: OK. An addendum to the above. I will avoid all fried foods and consume “sweets” only once a week. I’ll increase my fruit intake as snacks. (I know, sugar. Must be careful.)

4. Water: I’ve already increased my water intake to 96 ounces a day. That alone can make a big difference. Water can help keep your metabolism up and keep you filled.

5. Tracking: I’m a big believer in accountability. I’ll track my progress daily and weekly in a few ways, all of which will be discussed in my next post. (And while it’s planned for tomorrow, I’ve learned never to publicly announce my next blog post unless it is written and scheduled to post automatically.)

None of these are revolutionary tips, and they are all commonsense. In fact, they are so simple that I’m reminded of what someone said on Twitter when I posted my last post.

“Is it really that hard to lose weight?” he asked, then went on to explain his method. He:

• Watches what he eats.
• Rides his bike everyday.

In short, no, it’s not that had to lose weight and stay healthy once you are in that routine. But breaking bad habits and getting into a good routine can be quite difficult.

Sometimes just writing it down and finding inspiration in others who have undertaken simple steps to reach their goals is needed to obtain what others find so simple. That’s what I’ve done, and I hope others (at least one person) finds the same from these posts.

Up next: My jumping off weight and sizes, my tracking methods and where I am after one week.

Losing 30 pounds in six months

Yesterday, I wrote a post announcing that I was getting back into a healthy lifestyle routine. Today, I’ll give you background on how I lost 30 pounds in six months without exercising, and why not exercising won’t work for me this time around.

My first newspaper gig was at The Rankin Record in Flowood, MS, under a publisher by the name of Tim Beeland. It was Tim who told me about the best diet in the world, though I would not “get it” until years later.

He subscribed to the Push-Away Diet. In short, once he was done with his plate, he pushed away from the table. If he knew something was bad for him, he pushed it away.

That’s rather simplistic, but it’s the most effective diet in the world. And I would say it is no harder than giving up certain food groups. In fact, with the Push-Away Diet, you can eat what you want, so long as you push food away once you’ve reached your predetermined limit.

All joking aside, this is how I lost my weight. There was no intense exercise program, no fad diet, not cutting out bread and eating red meat like it was going out of style.

Simply put, after I did a little research, it became clear that the simplest approach was to eat fewer calories than what I required. Once I found a way to count calories without it being a crunch on my time or an inconvenience at meals, I was ready to go.

Before I go further, let me say that I’m a political consultant, freelance writer and former journalist. At no time have I professionally worked in the health field. This post includes my thoughts, observations and tips that work for me. They may not work for you — or anyone else, for that matter.

What my research showed

The best diet in the world is not really a diet. It’s a study of how your body gains or loses weight. It’s semi-scientific approach to understanding the relationship between what you eat and the fluctuation in weight.

The Hacker’s Diet was written by John Walker, founder of Autodesk, Inc., and co-author of AutoCAD.

If you are serious about weight loss, I would recommend sitting down and reading it. Mind you, it is a long piece. It has worksheets (that I don’t use) that illustrate the points made and that can help you along the way.

The key points of the Hacker’s Diet are as follows:

• Approach weight loss as an engineering problem. While this may not appeal to anyone but engineers, think of it as a mystery. It can be a coding mystery for you programmers or a simple puzzle for those who like mind games. The point is to approach weight loss (and a lifestyle change) not from the point of view of “this is what I have to do to lose weight” but “what do I have to do to lose weight?” If you go at a diet saying, “The Acme Diet says I can’t eat anything that I like,” then you will fail. But if you take a hard look at your lifestyle, recognize what changes need to be made and then voluntarily make them, you have ownership over the plan.

• Continual monitoring keeps you focused. I have a wee bit of a compulsive personality. The whole idea of weighing once a week kills me. I’m on the scale every day, same time of the day, to see my progress. Granted, I know results do not happen overnight and that many factors can contribute to slight ebbs and flows in one’s weight. That said, it is the daily tracking — at least mentally — of where I am that gives me the input I need to make it through the day in a healthy manner. The Hacker’s Diet prescribes just that. Continual tracking and monitoring — going so far as to plot certain things on a spreadsheet, for the truly obsessive — can help you not only see the effects of the changes you have made in your daily habits, it can also encourage you (or shame you) in your efforts.

• Exercise or the lack thereof. Walker writes: “You don’t exercise to lose weight (although it certainly helps). You exercise because you’ll live longer and you’ll feel better.” This is what sold me on The Hacker’s Diet, and I’ll tell you why. Exercise is important. It does help you live longer, and it does make you feel better. But for exercise to be an effective weight-loss tool, it must involve a rigorous, time-consuming routine for which most average people do not have time. Once I understood exercise’s role, I was free to focus on my eating habits as weight-loss and finding time for exercise became secondary. I no longer felt like I was failing in my “dieting” if I did not exercise. I just felt like, “If I exercised more, I’d feel better and have more energy. But, hey, look how much weight I’m losing. That helps, too.”

One important note. Walker is quick to point out that he is not a doctor or nutritionist. In fact, he says The Hacker’s Diet “is a diet book by somebody who spent most of his life fat.”

Hacking the Hacker’s Diet

As with any diet, it only works if you custom-tailor it to your life. If you can afford a gym membership and have the time to go for an hour or two every day, then by all means do it.

For me, I hacked The Hacker’s Diet this way:

1. Weight Watchers. If you want a mainstream diet plan, this is the way to go. This is the easiest way to count calorie-, fat- and fiber-intake. While the program itself can be expensive, you can find online counters (even for your iPhone or other mobile device) that help you judge the points. A cursory search with Google will produce charts for you to decide how many points you need. And, if you have the spare change, signing up for a month or two to get the materials may be worth it. It was to my wife and me.

2. Home cooking. My wife cooked every dinner. I went home most every lunch. By doing this, we not only saved money, but we avoided the grease and fat of restaurants. If you can’t go home for lunch, take your lunch with you to work. And don’t be daunted by cooking at night, especially you busy parents (like us). There are great cookbooks out there that are geared toward quick-and-easy meals.

3. Don’t forget to cheat. I used the FlexPoints plan of Weight Watchers, which gives you extra points each week. This allows you to cheat. And cheating is not bad, so long as you do it in moderation. For instance, my cheats might be a beer or a glass of wine each night. Perhaps it was dessert at my favorite restaurant. Or maybe I would have that cheeseburger I wanted. It was rarely more than weekly, and it was rarely — if ever — a binge.

4. Adapting to change. You may read the cheating point above and say, “My problem is that I always binge.” That’s because you are trained to do so. If you can make it through that first week of counting points or counting calories, then your body will start to adapt to your new eating habits. The hunger pains can be tough, but cucumbers, radishes and other crispy veggies will do away with them in short order. And once you have adjusted to the new eating habits, the desire to binge will go away. In fact, when you do cheat just a little, your body will not like it.

For me, starting with Weight Watchers helped train me to know what I could and could not eat without taking in too many calories. I learned portion sizes as well. Eventually, I stopped counting the points because eating healthy foods in the right portions became second nature.

And what about exercise?

When I began this new approach last year, I said I would start exercising again. Several months before I had been exercising every morning. I’d ride my bike and then do a light weight routine. When my wife and I moved, I got out of the habit.

However, while I changed my eating habits, I never got back to my exercise routine. For me, it didn’t matter as much during those six months. I weighed 205 pounds when I started. For a guy who stands only 5′9″, that’s a hefty load.

Losing the weight gave me more energy and made me feel better. Plus, it helped my life expectancy.

Now, however, I’m only slightly overweight. My target, which I’ll discuss more tomorrow, is now not so much about weight as it is size. I want to get from my size 36 pants to a size 34. I want to get rid of my beer gut. And I want to have more energy and feel healthier. Losing just a few pounds will achieve the first two, but it won’t do as much toward the second.

My new plan includes a daily exercise plan, but it’s not to lose weight. If I miss a day of exercising, it’s just going to make it a longer day. It won’t really play a part in my weight loss.

Tomorrow, I’ll outline my goals, both for losing weight and for exercising.

And if you take nothing else from this post, take that the two (weight loss and exercise) can be — and for most of us, should be — exclusive, even if they are equally important.

My plan to get back to a healthy lifestyle

Like many people, I’ve wrestled with my weight and lifestyle habits. There have been times of regular workouts but poor eating habits and times of great eating habits but no workout plan.

Last summer, I vowed to do something about it. After a bit of research online, I came to the conclusion that I already knew: If you want to lose weight, take in less calories than you burn.

From June to December of last year, I lost 30 pounds without doing the slightest bit of exercise. Mind you, I’m not advocating no exercise, but my point is simple: You can lose weight without exercising.

I’ll get more into what I did in a later post. For now, know that I did not starve myself. I ate regularly — four to five times per day — and sensibly.

For most people — myself included — the 30-minute workouts will do little to burn enough calories for weight loss purposes. If you want to lose weight through workouts, you have to be dedicated to a rigorous schedule.

Without getting into the debates of cardio vs. weights (a healthy combination of both is the way to go), exercise for me is not about weight loss. It is about building up my metabolism, being healthier and generally feeling better throughout the day.

Leo Babauta at ZenHabits just started a new blog to track his workout progress. Mind you, he is already a runner and in good shape. Were I where he is, I’d be happy.

After five months of slacking, not to mention gaining back seven pounds, I’ve decided to rededicate myself to getting healthy. Two recent posts from ZenHabits, the announcement of the Unbelievable Lightness of Being Club and 17 Tips to Help You Get Leaner and Fitter, were good inspiration.

Therefore, this is the first of a four-part series and regular blog posts. Here’s what I plan to do:

1. Background: What I’ve done before in weight loss and exercise, including more details about how I went from 205 lbs. to 175 lbs. in six months.

2. Goals: Weight loss, waist size, workout and morning routine.

3. Tracking: Blog, eating diary, etc.

4. Daily blog reports: The key to being successful is being vested. If I commit to telling the world about it, then perhaps the shame of failing will keep me going.

My next post will be in the morning after I exercise.

And by the way, I started out right this morning. I was up at 5 a.m. I rode my bike and did a light weight routine. I ate toast (plain) and yogurt for breakfast. (3 points if you are doing Weight Watchers.)

Think like da Vinci

As I filter through a week’s worth of links, I came across a post over at LifeOptimizer that summarizes Michael J. Gelb’s How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci.

I love da Vinci, and I love books of this sort. Needless to say, I just downloaded it from Audible.com and will give it a listen.

Check out the post. It’s a great read.

Race and politics in MS-01

Anyone who believes race is not an overriding factor in politics — especially Southern politics — need only to look at the Mississippi First Congressional District race to see the falacy in such an idea.

For certain, Republican candidate Greg Davis has done more race-baiting than either of the two candidates.

A New York Times article today highlights some of this.

Former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, expressed shock at the current campaign.

“I am appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed,” said Mr. Winter, who lost the 1967 governor’s race after his segregationist opponent circulated handbills showing blacks listening to one of his speeches. Mr. Winter went on to win the governor’s office 12 years later.

“I had thought we had gotten past that,” Mr. Winter said. “That was a tactic that was used against me in the 1960s.”

The chairman of the University of Mississippi’s department of public policy leadership, Robert J. Haws, said he had also noted the use of race in the contest. “Does this reflect a certain level of desperation?” he asked. Dr. Haws also said he had detected a “real reaction from people I know, Republicans” against the ads.

The Republican candidate, Greg Davis, said in an interview he was not raising racial issues, but was instead pointing out that his conservative values made him a better fit for the district.

“We’ve run ads against him with John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi,” said Mr. Davis, referring to Mr. Childers. “Just because one of them happens to be African-American has no bearing on it.” Mr. Davis, 42, is a former state representative who is now mayor of Southaven, a fast-growing Memphis suburb.

Davis has also released a couple of ads talking about Sen. Barack Obama’s endorsement of Childers. Here’s one ad, and here’s the other one. Both are pretty bad, though the first one is flagrant race-baiting.

While I’m appalled, I’m not surprised. I’m numb to the efforts of Republicans in Mississippi when it comes to race-baiting.

In 2003, Gov. Haley Barbour was helped along in his victory over incumbent Gov. Ronnie Musgrove with a “whisper campaign” based on the state flag. “Change the governor, not the flag” read signs and bumper stickers.

And if you are a Republican candidate, one of your campaign speaking engagements will most certainly be the CCC.

But when I saw that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released this mail piece, I was certainly not numb.

The claims are paper-thin, first off. It is grasping at straws and leaves Childers open to a defamation of character lawsuit.

Past that, it’s just not what we should do. It would be different if Davis openly campaigned for a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest to be moved to Southaven, or if Davis was caught with a white robe. Then, by all means, go after him.

But this is fear-mongering. This is cheap. This is base. This is not what Democrats should be about.

Childers should denounce it. He should denounce it now. And the DCCC should ask around Mississippi a bit before going with another stupid mailing like this.

Following local Twitterers

I joined the Twitter bandwagon a few weeks ago. I’ve not really posted too much. Joined more than anything for a client.

That said, after reading this post over at ReadWriteWeb, I found a few people in and around the Jackson area and added them to my list.

I’ll try again to join the fun, see what it’s all about. Who knows, I may or may not like it.

Ramblings and quick shots

I’ve added a new tab on my blog: Ramblings. This is for quick posts, thoughts that pop in my head I want to share and a place to be lazy and not write much.

See, this is one of those posts. Short, huh?

Keeping God in your plans

For whatever reason, this post showed up in NetNewsWire.

It’s from February, so it’s not recent. I’m sure there is a technical reason behind the return of the old post, but for now I’ll take it as God tapping me on the shoulder.

From Where I Sit is the professional blog of Michael S. Hyatt, president and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. It’s a great blog. I’ve learned a few productivity tips and some wine offerings from reading it.

Keeping razor-sharp focus

ZenHabits is easily one of my top favorite five blogs, and one of my top two for lifehacks.

A recent guest post by Glen Stansberry of LifeDev on keeping focus offers some excellent tips. You could easily design your daily routine around most of the 16 posts. A few highlights to that extent:

Keep a daily “purpose” card. It’s pretty easy to get lost staring at the computer all day long. We’ll find rabbit holes to wonder down (ie. Youtube, Myspace, etc.) if we’re not careful. Having your daily purpose card gives you clarity and a reminder as to what you’re doing today.

I do this to an extent. I have my top 3 most important tasks (MITs) for the day each day. They are prominently displayed on my desktop using a text file and GeekTool.

Plan your day to the T. If you’re finding sporadic periods of laziness throughout the day, it could be because you don’t take enough breaks (see #2), and you don’t have the day mapped out as efficiently as you could. Make sure your list of todos has lots of small, actionable steps that can be done quickly. This will gives a really satisfying feeling when you’re crossing things off your list like crazy.

OK. So “to a T” is a bit of an exaggeration for me. That said, I know my lull times and my productive times. I try to play to those strengths and weaknesses with set times for email, RSS reading, research and other regular tasks. Most of it is driven by my MITs.

Plan the night before. Planning the night before is a great way to really get focused on the next day. “Sleeping” on your tasks and goals for the following day can really help your mind expect what’s going to happen the next day. Essentially, you’re preparing your mind for the following day. Advanced focus.

I’ve just started doing this, mainly because I plan quicker at night than in the morning. When I plan first thing in the morning, I allow myself to get distracted or find myself eager to start a project before my planning is done. The end-result is often either a dysfunctional day or a wasteful day — both due to a lack of planning.

Keep a journal of what you did throughout the day. I like to use a moleskine notebook for my lists just so I can go back and review it every now and again, to see what I’ve done. Knowing how far you’ve come can keep you sharp and motivated to finish.

I use a moleskine notebook as well, but I don’t always journal in it at the end of the day. I sometimes use Journler, and sometimes I use a moleskine. Either way, getting into the habit of reviewing your day in writing is a good way to put your thoughts together and begin the planning process for the next day.

Start the day right. Starting the day with a good breakfast, some quiet time and/or exercise is a great way to set your day up for success. Sounds like a cliche, but it really works.
Clean yourself up. It’s why my track coach in high school made us dress up for big races: you perform the way you feel. And if you feel polished, groomed and ready, you’ll be more likely to be productive. For me this is just taking a shower, brushing my teeth and putting on casual clothing. I used to work all day without taking a shower in my PJ’s, but I never got much stuff done. Let’s be honest here… if you’re dressed really casually, odds are you’ll be working really casually. Just taking the time to clean up a bit before you buckle down for the day is never a bad idea.

These last two go hand-in-hand, in my opinion. If I am not up by 6 a.m, then my day is shot. Likewise, if I’m not dressed when working from home, I do not have the same energy. And sometimes, if I’m bumming it at work, I lack the same energy as if I’m dressed for a meeting. That said, sometimes I much prefer the “bumming”. It comes down to knowing what you have before you and being prepared mentally for it.

My candidate: Jim Kitchens for Supreme Court

I’m currently managing Jim Kitchens’ race for the Mississippi Supreme Court.

We’ve got a busy election year in Mississippi. On top of the presidential race, we’ve got a contested U.S. Senate race, two contested Congressional races and four Supreme Court races. (We’re the only site up for Supreme Court right now.)

Our Supreme Court races generally get a good bit of press — not as much as contested Senate races but a good bit. That’s generally because groups like the U.S Chamber like to spend millions of dollars on attack ads against progressive candidates like Kitch.

We just launched the website: www.kitchensforjustice.com. Will Bardwell beat me to the punch with a plug. I’m hoping CottonMouth, folo and Y’all Politics follow suit soon.

So, here’s my pitch: Go to the website and sign up for email updates. You can even donate a few dollars if the mood hits you.

Remember, www.kitchensforjustice.com.

And, if you live in Mississippi’s Central Judicial District, vote for Jim Kitchens for Supreme Court on Nov. 4.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Next Page »