The Frank Sinatra Plan

I Did It Myyyyyyyy Waaaaayyyyyy!. Yep, old Frankie boy could belt out a tune for sure. I did it my way is also an idea about long term weight reduction and fitness improvement.

You can read all kinds of excellent articles right in the Charlotte Observer online sources and thousands of others on websites. You can hire a personal nutrition expert or exercise coach. You can join groups like Weight Watchers or walking/running/biking/hiking clubs to help you stay interested in those things. You can join a gym. You can sign up for a drastic weight loss diet plan and lose lots of weight fast like Marie Osmond and others did.

The thing is, however, to find something that is both sustainable physically and emotionally so as to make it a part of your life from now on. I tend to like to exercise. I mean it actually is a satisfying thing. To others, its a chore they know they have to do. Sickness, injuries, change in jobs or locations can all interrupt the flow of your exercise. So you need to find something you will "want to" get back to even after a set back. So my overweight buddies, read, research, listen to others successful "methods", but in the end, you are an experiment of one. Find your groove and alter it as needed. Perfect your plan. Embrace your challenge. Try to keep some humor and humility in your failures and successes. With never ending effort and thought and action we can look back years from now as we prove our success and join old Frank Sinatra in a round of "I Did It My Way".

127 and Counting

How many of you think this post is going to be about my weight? Just what I thought. Sorry, but 127 has nothing to do with my weight.

Remember my previous post about my annual physical and my anticipation with the scale and the dreaded blood work? Well, when I got the results, I learned that I now have another reason to watch what I eat more closely.  127 is my latest cholesterol count. 

Although I am still less than the 130 borderline, this number is higher than it had been at my last physical.  Nothing major, but my doctor recommended that I try to follow the Mediterranean diet and since I hate taking medication for anything, I will try to explore this recommendation.  Problem is, I don't know very much about the Mediterranean diet -- actually I now know nothing.  I will turn to the Google to take a crash course.  But I'd like to know how many of you are or have ever followed the Mediterranean diet?  Do you have any tips to share?  You can post anonymously.  Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Until next week I leave you with a quote from ultramarathon runner Dean Karnazes, "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

Nancy Johnson

Releasing the Clutch & Shifting Gears

Many years after I had learned to drive a standard car, someone convinced me to learn to drive a stick shift. The experience is not one that brings on fond memories.To be honest, I am not the most coordinated person. (I could tell you stories about me socking the Chairman of the Board of a former employer in the mouth while learning to shag, . . . I digress).

Driving with both feet just didn't feel natural. It didn't help that my teacher often got frustrated with my attempts to shift gears and used terms like "this isn't rocket science", "what's wrong with you", "are you slow?"  What does this bad memory have to do with weight loss? Nothing, but when I read some of the comments on how "easy" it is to just eat less and move more, I remember my  attempts to shift gears while listening to the negative comments from my driving instructor. 

Losing weight is a lot like trying to learn to drive a manual car. It took many false starts, a few stripped gears, and a lot of Sunday school words, but I learned to drive that car and the feeling of absolute control while shifting gears and releasing the clutch was absolutely won-der-ful!  I am looking forward to shifting gears with my health.

Until then, remember that perseverance not perfection is the only way to get there.

Nancy Johnson

20 pounds down, 50 to go. I need 5K advice

I write this blog on Thursday morning right before going out the door for a walk. You may recall I was up 3 pounds over the weekend. The weekend was my daughters wedding with way too much to eat and drink. Well, as of Thursday morning I'm already rid of that excess and have reached the 20 pound weight loss mark.

Now that I'm getting into better and better shape and weigh less I hope to accelerate the intensity of the exercise and am cutting out all beer/booze for the time being to maximize calorie reduction and nutrition.

So, being laid off from my job and getting through my daughter's wedding weekend is history. Next on the list is getting ready for a 5k sometime in July. Any local ones that are low key you readers can suggest?

Then its big build up for turning 60 in Oct and doing the Thunder Road half marathon in mid November. Just finishing that event without being pulled off the course from being too slow is the major goal.

Last of all, by year end, I WILL be no more than 175 pounds!!!!!!!

Now I'm out the door for a 3.25 mile walk and then a SPEW workout when I get back to the house. Keep at it you bunch of losers.

Look what the bunny brought back!

Well, the Easter Bunny doesn't only bring protein-rich eggs...I'm back after a short break from the blogosphere. Actually, I also requested to only post once per week from now on - being busy living my life and all, I just can't spend as much time writing about it (I'm joking - it's supposed to sound snarky!). Rejoice in the more frequent blogs of Nancy and Dan because those two are smokin' with the weight loss thing and I'm more the tarty turtle in this meaty marathon.

As you know by now, I'm always going to be honest regarding my ups and downs. I can tell you that while my things have been going, my exercise has been slowin' since I ran out of my visits at the Y. That said, my food choices are accumulating and one good choice is leading to others; it's still hard, but it's getting easier and that's making my weight loss journey that much better.

All in all, I'm still choo--chooing along, the Little Engine that Could and Couldn't Occasionally. I'm not going to pretend I didn't enjoy eating Easter dinner with my family because Yum! it was good and I had a blast. However, I've learned that one indulgence needs to be balanced by many good choices and with my return to town and days off work, I have a feeling that ham will be hightailing off my hide without fail. A week full of yinning and yanging and whatnot - shazaam!

Making the Connection

I weighed in at my Weight Watchers at Work meeting yesterday.  I was surprised to learn that I did not gain weight this week.  I actually lost a pound.  19 pounds down; at least 17 more to go. 

Truth be told, there is so much that could go wrong when you are trying to lose weight -- deadlines, obligations, and those friendly coworkers with their afternoon snacks. This is especially true when the brain, the tongue, and the hand refuse to work towards together the common goal.

Each day my brain and I start the day ready to embark on a healthy day; a day which starts with rest, healthy food and exercise. Although my brain realizes the importance that each of these plays to my weight loss journey, my tongue is, however, taking a little while longer to get with the program. Healthy foods just don't have the same appeal to my taste sensitive tongue.

My tongue is pretty convincing. It knows what it wants and has great negotiation skills. (Remember it gets lots of practice in Toastmasters).  My tongue continuously tries to persuade my brain to bypass the healthy options and then it works on my hand to deliver the ill-gotten goods. To get my tongue into the healthy mantra, I often find myself humming “Mmm, mmm, good” as I eat things like spinach. When this little trick doesn’t work, I then visualize myself walking down Tryon Street in my little black dress.

Now that is a picture that finally makes the connection. Enjoy the weekend.

Nancy Johnson

Watching the Weight

If you are expecting to read another uplifting post about my weight loss journey, you can stop reading right here. No, really. Today I am not my normal inspirational self. Today will be my official whine post and for those not interested in hearing me whine, I will wait a few seconds for you to leave the blog. (For everyone else, hum the jeopardy song here)

Okay, so can I assume that the rest of you are either one of my truly committed readers (thank you), or a little curious or otherwise downright bored? Why else would you bypass my whining disclaimer? Last week, I gained weight (1.5 pounds) and the scale will probably show that I have gained another pound today. Yuck.

Prior to rejoining Weight Watchers a few weeks ago, I was 3 pounds shy of losing 20 pounds. 3 pounds shy! Lately, it seems that I have truly been "watching the weight" and not in the way that I'm supposed to. :( Now, before the curious naysayers get their trigger finger close to the keyboard, back up and put the finger down. I AM NOT BLAMING Weight Watchers, my leader or anyone else other than my brain, my tongue, and my hand. Weight Watchers is a great program and if you follow it, it works. If you "sorta" follow the plan, you "sorta" get results. If you wing it (like I THOUGHT I was doing), you shouldn't be shocked when the weight decides to stick around.

Occasionally, we all fail or fall down. Falling down is not a problem. Staying down is. Tomorrow I will share the series of untimely events between my brain, my tongue, and my hand.

Nancy Johnson

I'm not as Good as I Once Was

I believe its the country singer Toby Keith that has a song with the line "I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was." Nope. Not true for this old guy. Instead of a traditional bachelor party for my new son-in=law this past weekend, we had 14 guys spending the day "killing" each other with paint ball guns.

My attempts to "sprint" across a field while being fired upon by opposing paint ball team felt like I was on another planet with maybe 1.25 times our Earth's gravity. I was running and my feet were moving, but my time/distance equation was all slow motion. Did I mention that a 200 mph paint ball can sting a tad when you are shot by one?

Oh well. Just another reminder that while I've had some success with my exercise so far this year, I've got a long long way to go.

So, I'm not as good as I once way but I'm shooting for being better than I would be without a major lifestyle change.

Today I'm scheduled to mow the yard for an hour with a push mower and walk 3.25 mile course and plant ten new azalea bushes. Its going to be a good day.

Eat, Drink and Being Married

My daughter's wedding was fantastic, both times. Due to the expected tornado weather predictions, we moved the outdoor Duke Garden ceremony up one day and then had another full ceremony indoors the following day. Tons of food two nights and gallons (not just a figure of speech) of high-calorie hallucination inducing drink.

Exercise? Kinda. This old fat guy tried to hang with 13 "twenty somethings" for some paintball warfare. Lots of running and ducking behind trees and barriers and shooting and being shot with welt producing paint balls.

The other unfortunate news is that I'm up 3 pounds as I write this. Hopefully that will come off as fast this week as I put it on the last few days.

One daughter married . One new member to our family in the form of my son-in-law. One great time in the flow of life.

Now its time to hit the pavement and sweat out some pounds. No more kids to marry off now and no more huge parties planned anytime soon. So this is the time to get back to being a Loser.

Now lets all go for a long walk.

I'm too Sexy for my Tux

Good morning from Durham from the father of the bride!!!! Yep. Girl child getting married tomorrow (Saturday) in Durham. Weather looks terrible for an outdoor wedding. All the eating and drinking, however, to be inside. Good thing the Tux uses suspenders to hold the pants up. I'm at least two inches smaller in the waist than earlier this year. Last time I wore a tux was in ballroom dancing events a few years ago at 170 pounds.

My daughter's wedding is one of the life events for this weight loss year. The others you may recall are turning 60 years old, participating in a half marathon, 38th wedding anniversary and the "bonus" life event I didn't expect...... being laid off from my job.

So what? Life goes on. I'll certainly participate in eating and drinking and being merry this weekend. I will, however, try to also get in a walk or two at the Hilton exercise room and occasionally chose celery instead of another load of Italian food.

Just because we abundant size folks are on a journey to better health and fitness doesn't mean we can't have a life and enjoy it. Monitor it, plan for it, make up for lapses and most of all, look forward to the better life we are working toward. I raise a glass of bubbly to all you "losers" out there and wish you all a weekend of fondness for life. Now get out there and go for a walk.

The Man in the Mirror

One of my favorite songs of all times is Michael Jackson's, "Man in the Mirror". The theme of the song is that there are so many bad things happening in the world, but the only way to make the world a better place is to start with the person you see everyday in the mirror.

This blog has been an interesting journey thus far. The support given from my family (especially my daughter), my friends, fellow Toastmaster pals, co-workers, Weight Watchers, the YMCA, and the like has been phenomenal! I definitely feel the love. To date, I've lost 17 pounds (gained 1.5 this week), but more importantly my daughter has lost over 40 pounds.

This statistic is the most exciting for me because my weight loss journey started with a newspaper article that I did not feel accurately portrayed me. But because of some of the comments that followed that article, I finally decided to make a change. The journey to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle can be overwhelming. That's probably why the weight loss industry has been so profitable. The promise of quick results without incremental work usually ends with a return of the weight and the cycle begins again. I have not been perfect in my eating habits or exercise. There is a LOT of opportunity for improvement. But I now realize that small changes repeated every day, can and will net big results. It just takes time, discipline and a mind that is focused on the goal.

"Man in the Mirror" had a message repeated throughout the song: And no message could've been any clearer.  If you wanna make the world a better place.  Take a look at yourself and then make that change!  Moms, our kids are watching what we are doing. The good and the bad. One article made me think and finally decide to make a change. I am so glad I did!

Nancy Johnson

Can I finally get an Easy Bake Oven?

 Nancy Johnson:

Let me tell you one of my secrets.  I am a little challenged in the kitchen.  Okay, I guess since I mentioned in it my second post, "When Pigs Fly", it probably isn't a secret for our loyal readers.

BUT REALLY, I CAN'T COOK!

You probably think I'm joking, right?  Well, I am not.  My brother, my daughter, and even my ex-husband will gladly certify this to be a fact.  I am sure any one of them might even post a crazy comment to this post.

My culinary disability must have appeared when I was young because I wasn't even allowed to own an Easy Bake Oven as a little girl.  Apparently my mother could see that my domestic skills just weren't there.

I do cook, but it often ends with tasteless food and a smoke-filled room.  Because of this fact, I eat out more than most.  This is a HUGE problem when trying to lose weight.  I have often said that it would be so nice to have a restaurant that specialized in fresh, home cooked food that was also healthy, you know sorta like a Weight Watcher restaurant ala carte. 

It looks like I might finally learn to cook healthy foods!  A new company, Flex + Fit, will open in May in the Duke Energy Center.  Flex + Fit will offer fitness classes but there is one amenity that really got my dormant cooking skills' attention -- healthy cooking classes.  Soon they will offer classes led by Johnson and Wales chefs and students.  

I hope to take a few classes to help me improve my healthy eating. I guess I really should warn the owner to make sure there are batteries in the smoke alarms.  If they can teach me, they can teach anyone.  If I get really good, maybe I will finally get my Easy Bake Oven!

Until next week, have fun and enjoy life! 

America's Sumo Future

You've seen in my blog comments I've made about walking in my neighborhood. My normal walking route is GPS measured at 3.25 lovely miles. Its a pleasant place to walk and a safe place to walk.

I live on the main corner in our community and its the bus stop 6 times per day for school bus pickup. 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon for elementary, middle school and high school.

As many as 15 kids gather at the four way stop intersection at times. I've noticed, however, during my walks, that some of the kids are brought to the bus stop in their parents CARS!!!!

The furthest point any of these kids could possibly live from the intersection/bus stop is a quarter of a mile. One lousy lap around a typical school track. I'm not talking about inclement weather days. I'm talking about gorgeous weather days.

Hey parents, do your kid a favor and let them walk. If an old man who is overweight can walk 3 to 5 miles most days...your little cherub kid can too.

Hey, maybe this is the start of America getting into a new sport in the future. Sumo wrestling. We'll sure have enough fat folks to supply the sport with. Now get out there and go for a walk. Consider taking your kid with you.

Letter to a Bosu Ball

Dear Bosu Ball-

I know I've let you down lately. Typical to my usual behavior, I get intensely involved with something and back off unexpectedly. We started seeing each other frequently, enjoying our time together, and experimenting with a closer relationship. I realize this week my behavior has changed. Without warning, I've been distant lately. It's not an accident that I've been making plans to see you and then canceling at the last minute. It's true that I've been ignoring your calls and avoiding situations where I know you'd be present.

I want you to know it is not you, it's me. I have serious issues with consistency and putting my needs before other responsibilities. It's not that I don't enjoy our time together or that I find you boring. In fact, it's the opposite - being with you always makes me feel better, and I truly see a need for you in my life. I just want you to know that I'm working on it. If you can just give me some time, I promise I will find a way to adjust to the new changes that being with you will bring to my life. I know I need to put you first and work you into my life; I'm figuring out how to make that happen and I need you to work with me on this.

I've let you down; I've let myself down, and for that I'm sorry. It is without hesitancy that I say that I want to continue our relationship. Though I may not get to see you too often this coming week as I sort through some issues, just know you are on my mind. This is not the norm; I'm in for the long haul.

With my sincerest regret,

Old Habit

Thank God! It's just a broken scale.

 Melissa Sykes:

Things were going and then...Chima...I tried my best, but it is Chima steakhouse after all. The dinner was a surprise outing; my willpower was sulking somewhere inside me like an abused child. Not only was this dinner way off "the plan," but it also revealed yet another weird thing I didn't know about my husband until now. While I tried to cut away any fat from my revolving meat, I had the following conversation:

Me: Would you eat this fat?

Hub: Why would I do that?

Me: Let's just say that I'm a hostage and the only way to get me back is to eat it.

Hub: Yeah, I'd eat it. I mean, I'd eat it anyway. It's just meat fat.

Me: So, you wouldn't eat the fat to keep me? You'd just eat it?

Hub: Yeah. Eating the fat isn't a big deal.

I immediately had a flashback to Ross and Rachel from Friends (you'll know it if you're a fan). This was followed by anger because he wouldn't eat the fat to keep me. Then I got grossed out and flipped my meat coin to the black "No thanks" side. Does anyone else nonchalantly eat the fat?! Gross. He's lucky he's an avid bike rider or he'd be the fat.

Anyway, I didn't do too bad, but I wasn't a svelte saint either. Obviously, I had to weigh myself immediately the next morning before work. Goodbye my hard earned 12! The next few days I was on overdrive, trying to fix what I had messed up. This morning I called on the scale again and it said I had gained 43 pounds. In 3 days. For a moment, I actually thought someone had switched my low sodium V8 and yogurt lunches with lard. Then I forced my dog to go on it and it said he weighs 198; I know he's a debonaire 93.

When my heart finally slowed, I realized my new fancy scale is a sham. The verdict is still out on whether I will be forgiven for my sins. In the meantime, I have to figure out what's wrong with my cruel, cruel scale.

A big weigh in. And the number is...

Last week I left my introductory Weight Watchers meeting with a smile on my face, fully prepared to follow the plan. Since joining this blog I have lost 15 pounds so I was confident that following the plan was a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong. What happened? Single-parent responsibilities. Care taker duties. Work deadlines. Flu-like illness. Extracurricular activities. LIFE.

Realizing that I was not fully compliant with the program, I went into the meeting on Wednesday ready for the verdict from the scale. Did I lose weight? Well, I guess my haircut on Tuesday afternoon worked. I lost 4 pounds. I'm down 19 pounds! More importantly, my daughter Brittany has lost almost 40! I was lucky this week, but I realize that I must plan for real success. What will I do different this upcoming week?

• I will exercise in the morning at least three times a week. This won't be easy; I am not a morning person. But I realize that I am kidding myself when I say I will exercise after a 12-hour day. It just does not happen and I have to move it to lose it.


• I will plan, pack and track everything that goes in my mouth. If I don't know the points or can't calculate them, I won't eat it.


• I will sleep at least 7 hours a night and drink at least 24 ounces of water a day.


• I will learn 3 easy to cook recipes.


• I will plan to succeed by putting me and my health higher up on my priority list.

I have learned a very valuable lesson on my first week. Losing weight is like baking a cake, you must follow the recipe closely or you could very well face disaster. Until next week ....

Nancy Johnson

Sleeping Off the Weight?

Nancy Johnson

Since joining this blog, I have become a connoisseur of weight loss information -- from people, from the internet and from books and magazines. One piece of information that completely took me by surprise was an article in USA Today on a possible link between sleep and weight loss. Now, I know many of you are wanting to know how my first week on Weight Watchers' went, but since I don't weigh in until noon today, you will have to wait until tomorrow's blog for that update. The USA Today article summarized a study which indicated that people who are sleep deprived eat on average 300 more calories per day. The article provided a good explanation of why sleep is important to a healthy metabolism and what happens when you don't get enough sleep. This is really interesting news for me because those who know me know that not only do I burn the candle at both ends, on weeks like this one I also burn the candle in the middle and up all sides. Yes, I am very sleep deprived. Typically, I function on less than 6 1/2 hours of sleep but the THOUGHT of those extra 300 calories creeping onto me might be enough to scare me to sleep a little earlier tonight! I've always heard that sleep was an important part to a healthy lifestyle. Now I finally have an incentive to get more of it.

Question -- Am I the only person who doesn't get 8 hours of sleep?

No Short Cuts

I do most of my walking/jogging in my neighborhood in Matthews. Its a nice well established neighborhood with friendly folks and mature yards and trees to look at while I walk.

I do notice, however, that during morning and evening rush traffic times our quiet streets have extra traffic from people too impatient to wait an extra minute or so at a traffic light out on the main road. Cutting through our neighborhood means many twist and turns, speed "humps" lots of stop signs (which nobody adheres to) etc to get around the intersection in question on the main street.

I've timed both routes numerous times and find that seldom does it really save time to do this cut through abuse of my tranquil streets. I doubt, however, that most of the abusers of my neighborhood ever bother to actually time their impatient pursuit of saving another minute in their day.

Same thing happens to some of us in exercise and diet attempts. We "run" the stop signs and eat more than we admit. We "cut" out some of our planned exercise routines. Meanwhile, unless we are the type who log our calories and miles etc, we try to fool ourselves we are still on track. Or perhaps we wonder why we are not making the progress we assumed we'd make.

You don't have to berate yourself about not being perfect. We should, however, be honest with ourselves for our own sakes. We need to understand the cause and effect of our eating and exercise. Without this brutally honest understanding of what is going on in our lives and our bodies, we run the risk of either failing in our attempt or, reverting back to our old fat ways over time. So eat right, exercise right and keep track of reality. Now get out there and go for a walk. Then enter your time or miles into your exercise log.

Follow the Fitness Brick Road

 Melissa Sykes:

I've seemed to wander my way onto the fitness brick road to Healthville. Though things are progressing slowly (after all these vegetables, I should be 40 pounds lighter!), I feel like I'm embracing my lifestyle changes.

I'm trying to consistently exercise at least 4 days per week- Monday after Spanish class, Wednesday after meetings, and a combo of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday depending on when I can get moving. It's hard to put other things aside, but I rationalize my hours at the gym as a "treat" for my body. Sometimes that line of thinking works and sometimes I mumble a curse in response. I even tried a new machine at the gym that looks like a spider and makes me sweat more than Brad Pitt circa Fight Club. I probably looked really stupid doing it because it requires a mastery of leg and arm swinging coordination, but at the end of my scheduled 30 minutes I was convinced that I had burned off something since my body was on fire.

I also finally figured out that healthy eaters have to be Tupperware queens. I've started slicing and dicing veggies and fruit for easy access, and I've been trying to plan meals so my weekdays are much smoother and I can avoid the "I'm tired, we should order out" mantra in my head after work. I spent all Saturday chopping up anything that was green and leafy, and I even got some "veggie saver" containers to replace the scummy old ones that look dirty and are slightly tinged pink from spaghetti sauce even though I've run them through the dishwasher a million times. I felt officially health-minded as I chopped and washed, and I pretended that I was on a healthy cooking show to make things more interesting ("so now you want to cut the celery here and here..."). So far, the scale has been kinda stuck; I'm hoping if I stick with my plan, it will start to move in the right direction. If not, veggie party at my house!

PS - Any topics you're dying to have me discuss? I'm running out of ideas and want to know what you'd like to hear...

Paunchy Poetry

In honor of my growing gym devotion and new knowledge of healthy carbs, I decided to express my thoughts in poetry.

Elliptical Haiku

Little man lit up

Cardio run spray it down

Smells like an old sack

Gymric - Limerick

There once was an oversized dame

Who thought working out was quite lame

She knew she was lazy

Changed and ignored the crazies

And now she is not quite the same

Ode to a Sports Bra

Thou dedicated booby-holder,

h

ow I relish your support.

Unlike any other molder,

y

ou make my buxom bosom quite a fort.

Though my maidens can be restless,

t

here is no denying thee.

And my uni-boob is priceless,

f

or it averts a saggy me.

Alas, your fabric could be sweeter

w

hen I wrangle you over head,

But my teats no longer teeter

and

my fun bags don't fall like lead.

With a far over-reaching passion,

my ta-tas turn up towards the sky;

You will always be in fashion,

frontage appreciates an admiring eye.

Dedicated and devoted,

such worth cannot be praised enough.

Otherwise bosoms would be toted

around the bottom with other stuff.

Carb Awakening

Bread

Starchy, sugar-inducing sustenance

Doughy-larder; digestible-vitality

Complex, energetic nutrition

Grain