Deprivation – Even though I had to quit the bacon for a while in my personal journey, deprivation has such a negative mental impact.

Many of us spend so much time focusing on the things we can’t eat that we forget about all of the amazing foods that we can.

If you end up with a craving you can’t get rid of don’t let it build up inside of yourself with the end result of binging. Have a small portion of the food and move on.

Doubt – “When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt”

We are capable of amazing things. Our bodies are capable of amazing things. We need to create a feeling of self worth and self confidence by meeting small sustainable goals. Read this for more information on setting and achieving goals.

Dieting – I HATE THIS FREAKING WORD!

It is just so full of negativity and is totally finite. The word diet implies that there is an end to our current nutritional habits. What happened to making lifestyle changes? What happened to eating well for life?

We have this thought process that we can eat like garbage until  things start to get out of hand or the belt gets a little tight, then we diet. It totally destroys the concept of moderation and magnifies the consequences of deprivation.

I totally understand why we do it. I did it for years and years. I think that’s why I have such strong animosity toward the word. It has been mental poison for me for so long. Don’t go on a diet, make a change.

The past week was full of surprises (they all seem to be like that lately). I started Spring Cleaning, I forgot my pants, and I also ended up with a super random staph infection in my thumb that limited my exercise greatly.

I did what I could do though. I totally focused on my nutrition this week. When I say focused I mean that I let NOTHING that could impede my weight loss into my body. I ate on a very rigid schedule and only put the most wholesome foods down the gullet. (aside from the bacon incident obviously).

So how did I do? Take a look:

Initial Weight : 388
Last Week’s Weight: 276
Current Weight: 269.4
This Week’s Weight Loss: 6.6
Total loss so far: 118.6 lbs.
This week’s dance: The Running Man (Recognizing the actual running that I started a few months ago).

Wow, this could end up bad. Without further ado, the running man:

CRANK UP THE VOLUME AND DANCE ALONG!

I don’t have much time so this one has to be done in a hurry. In short, I finished two of my three goals. One of my goals I avoided on purpose just to be sure I wasn’t at risk of spreading any more ugly infections. (Link to post where I talk about bizarre infection).

1. I did drink two gallons of water on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
2. I did not run a 5K
3. I did keep my calorie intake between 1800-2000 calories.

It’s a good exercise and if we end up doing it again I guarantee I go 3 for 3 (barring any other weird health issues).

Now the list of participants:

• Carla from The Right Fit
• Lynne from Losing Lynne
• Steve from 265 and Falling
• Kat from Kat’s Adventures in Dietland
• Frank from Male Weight Loss Now
• Sean from Learn Fitness
• Mac from Get Fit Slowly
• Andrew from Andrew is Getting Fit
• Karyn from Fitness Road Trip
• Josie from 35 and Shrinking
• Marissa from Fatty Slims Down
• Jeremy from Stellar Path
• Mike from SUB6
• Andrew from 100 Pounds in a Year
• Erin from Erin Takes Control
• Alissa from Gluten Free Pumpkins
• Craig from My Life, Take Eight
• Ryan from No More Bacon
• Chad from Reconstructing 30
• beej from Journey to Satisfaction

If nothing else this definitely helped me to stay focused on my goals during days when I’d normally slack off. Thanks, Brandon.

Send out the Infantry!

Call in the Coast Guard, the FBI, the CIA, PETA!

Hell, Future Farmers of America need to know about this!

I ate bacon on Saturday!

It’s true. I feel like I have betrayed you all. The worst part is, I liked it. Of course I liked it. I knew I was going to like it. My profound love for bacon is the reason I had to rid it from my diet completely 8 months ago. I don’t know how to explain what happened but it happened. Since Saturday I’ve been having recurring dreams of small babies wrapped in bacon. I know that I shouldn’t eat them but they just look so delicious. I need help. I ate two crispy strips of Butterball’s finest turkey bacon. Wait? You wasted your bacon binge on turkey bacon? Why yes I did, and I’d hardly call it a binge…

This is where I try to justify that it was ok to eat bacon

There it is in all it's glory

My wife brought the product-that-shall-not-be-named into our home on Friday. I can only figure it was an attempt at sabotage. Saturday morning she offered to make breakfast. How could I refuse? A homemade breakfast with my name on it? It was no longer my decision. It had been made up for me. *Ryan stops typing and refers self to post on Control.* Fine. I decided on my own that I would eat the turkey b@&()n. What’s in tocino de pavo anyway (google translate link)? I’m glad you asked.

As you can see each strip of the food contains 25 calories 15 of which are from fat. 60% of the food is fat. Fair enough, let’s read on. Eating 2 strips of the “healthy” variety of this consumable will give me 6% of my daily value of Fat and Saturated Fat, 8% of my Cholesterol, 12% of my sodium and only 4 grams of protein. A yoplait light yogurt has 5 grams of protein just to put it in perspective.

My justification argument is falling apart right in front of me…

I WANTED TO EAT IT!

That’s my justification. I’ve decided to slowly, and I mean S L O W L Y experiment with this idea that everyone is raving about — moderation.

I’ve never been a good at moderation. One Diet Pepsi would always become one of those novelty soda/beer helmets with gallon jugs on either side.

It’s been that way all my life. For whatever reason I don’t have the  STOP mechanism built it but I’m figuring out how to add one on. It’s a pretty expensive accessory.

So is my weight loss journey officially over? Have I been looking to see if nomorebaconceptturkeybacon.com is an available website name?

I stopped at two strips and in all seriousness I haven’t had a craving since. It tasted good but I’m done with it and will probably choose foods that are more nutrient dense most of the time. The important part is that I’m learning control.

STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER SPRING CLEANING POST LATER TODAY!

Brandon over at SoLongFatAss is hosting the Weekend Warrior Challenge. Basically it’s a challenge to see if we can carry the same weight loss momentum we’ve had during the week clear through the weekend. It seemed like a great idea to me since the weekend is usually when I tend to slip up.

I made this fun little badge for the challenge:

I’m supposed to set three goals for the weekend and then report back to all of you on Monday. Here are my three goals

1. Drink two gallons of water per day. (This is my norm during the week but I always tend to miss out on good fluid intake over the weekends).
2. Stay within my calorie limit of 1800 – 2000 calories per day. It’s not just a matter of staying under 2000 either. My body needs nutrition so I have to make sure I get up to 1800 as well.
3. Complete a 5K dreadmill run on Saturday.

This competition is open to everyone and the prize is that you get to feel good about yourselves. If you missed out this week be sure to join in next week. Here’s the link to the challenge itself.

Sidelined

I haven’t really brought it up much in the last few days because I don’t want to be a whiner, but I’ve been sidelined since Wednesday. I haven’t been able to workout at all! YUCK! Back in the day I would have loved any excuse that got me out of pumping iron or running a few miles, but it looks like things have changed because I feel like a slug from my current lack of activity.

My ailment is not a torn ACL or an amputated right arm. It’s not even a cough or a cold. It a thumb injury. How lame does that sound? It’s not what you think though. Somehow I ended up with some bizarre staff infection in my thumb. I’m sure you’re thinking “Yeah, but how does that keep you from running or riding the bike?” Well it turns out that exercise moves the blood through your body more quickly and greatly increases the chance of the infection spreading. An infection in your blood stream can mean bad news if it’s not treated immediately. My thumb looks gross and huge! It is getting better so hopefully I can start exercising again tomorrow.

I’m not sure how well the photo illustrates it, but apparently the dark red color is a bad thing. Also the fact that it’s about twice as big as my other thumb is a pretty good indicator something’s wrong. Notice how there are no wrinkles on my left thumb. The skin is stretched to the max! I feel like a total wuss sitting out because of thumb drama but I’m also a fan of living so I’ll do what the doctor says.

Throwback Friday

This week has been full of craziness. I have been so busy with so many different things that I haven’t had too much time to keep up on current happenings. Being so busy is a good sign that awesome things are coming!

Webcam

I did get a new webcam this week to help simplify vlogging or logging (it may be a soft v). That’s bad news for all of you because you’re probably going to have to watch me work instead of just getting the polished written final product. Yes, this is polished.

Dailyburn

I got free stuff from Daily Burn! Woohoo! All my crying to them finally paid off! I must say that it really is superb exercise and nutrition tracking software. Go check them out if you haven’t yet. They sent me this email:

The Elite Membership itself is like 180 bucks for a year so this is one fine hookup!

Autism Awareness

I don’t talk about this much and some of you may already know, but my 3 year old Collin has Autism. This past week we attended a meeting for an event we have coming up on May 1st to help raise money for research and awareness of autism. April 2nd is Autism Awareness day so I’m in the process of getting some fun things going for that. If you have any questions about autism or would like to share any ideas for how to spread the word I would love your suggestions. Email me at ryan [at] nomorebacon.com or just leave a comment.

Spring Clean the Letter D

The letter D is chockfull of words that can be detrimental, disastrous, and even devastating to our weight loss and healthy living goals. That’s why the letter D is actually going to get two days. Wow! I’ll do half of the words today and the other half tomorrow.

Depression - Books have been written about this word. It’s referred to all the time. I specifically remember one Fat Bastard (via Austin Powers) saying “I eat become I’m depressed, and I’m depressed ’cause I eat.” Isn’t it a vicious cycle? How many of us have put ourselves through that? I clearly remember hitting up the drive thru, ordering 6 menu items, and then driving around in my car while I ate. I did it because I didn’t want the people inside the restaurant talking about the fat guy eating lunch alone and I definitely wasn’t going to take it back to work to let my coworkers see me eating like a pig. I hid. Then when I finished my food I would feel sick and then I would feel guilty. I would be so mad at myself for binging.

Beating depression requires us to do something we’re proud of; even if it’s just a few little things. I know I felt good when I would choose an apple over a Snickers bar. Those little victories compound upon themselves and we begin to develop pride. Make little changes and you will see your depression slowly begin to disappear.

Denial - It took me a really long time to realize that I was actually fat. I always knew I was a big guy. “Husky” or “big boned” were frequently used words in my vocabulary. Things like “health risk” and “obese” were far from my mind. It wasn’t until I admitted to myself that I had a problem to fix that I could start seeing success.

Discouragement – “This time it’s going to work!” “This time I’m going to lose weight and keep it off for good!” Are those familiar phrases? How many times have we said that and then found ourselves eating Ben & Jerry’s straight from the carton two weeks later? Why does that happen? Is it a lack of commitment? We are a results now society. If we follow a program religiously for a week we expect to lose weight. On the Biggest Loser Ranch they lose like 800 pounds in their first week, how come I can’t lose 1?

Weight loss requires a lot of troubleshooting and if we keep that in mind we won’t get discouraged as quickly. “I didn’t lose weight the first week; how many calories did I take in, how many did I burn?” “Was I honest with myself about everything I ate or did I sneak a cookie that I ‘forgot’ to write down?” If you faithfully follow a program for a month and don’t see any results, don’t be afraid to try something new. Make sure you choose something that is based on proven methods. If healthy eating and exercise aren’t focal points of the program then don’t waste your time or hard-earned money on them.

You have just finished day four of our 30 day spring clean. Learn how to deal with these words that can cause so much grief and strife. Make a plan of attack and go for it. The only thing you risk losing is years of built up mental baggage.

I’d love to hear your thoughts so far on the NMB Spring Clean. Is it helping? Do you find yourselves at least being conscious of negativity in your thoughts, speech, or actions? What can I do to make it better or more helpful? Please let me know with a comment! Thanks for continually coming back!

I will tell you that as I sit here pounding this out on the keyboard my dog is barking at his own reflection in the sliding glass door. That reminds me, I still need to come up with a creative, non-demeaning way to let him know that he’s getting neutered next week. I was thinking of giving him a Mounds bar because sometimes you just don’t feel like having nuts. Wait! I just remembered that dark chocolate kills dogs so maybe that’s not a good gift… any suggestions are appreciated.

Now let’s get our clean on!

Remember these are the words we’re getting rid of. These are the ones that are going to be permanently erased from the hard drive. As of today, we’re done with them!

Control, Lack of - Isn’t this clearly what got us into this mess in the first place? I can tell you from my personal experience that I didn’t weigh 400 pounds because I lived a life of moderation. If the sign said All-You-Can-Eat I felt obligated to test my body’s limits.

Gross story alert (don’t read directly after eating): I remember being 12 years old and getting invited out with THE MEN. Now this was a big deal. It consisted of me, my dad, and two uncles and my cousins who were all older than me.

On a Saturday night we all went out to a restaurant called The Shed. Seriously, that was the name. The Shed was unique because they featured an all-you-can-eat steak and friend chicken buffet for only $14.95. I didn’t even have to look at the menu. I knew what I wanted! In fact, that’s what everyone ordered. Of course being “men” it immediately became a competition. “I’ll bet I can eat 4 steaks and 8 pieces of fried chicken!” “Oh yeah, I’ll bet I can go 5 and 9!” This is how the night went. I had to keep up. It was my first night with the men! There I sat, slowly but surely pounding away steak and friend chicken. After about 2 of each I felt sick. Did I stop? You know the answer. I kept eating and eating until I was literally sweating.

Then, it happened. You know as well as I do that I yacked all over the dinner table. I filled my plate and watched everyone’s eyes widen. I mean, I didn’t even make it to the bathroom. There was barf right there in the middle of the table. IT. WAS. AWFUL. I did feel better though.

We did what any group of men in the same situation would do. We left enough for the bill plus a 100 dollar tip and we got the hell out before anyone could see what happened.

Moral of the story: Pace yourselves better than I did and don’t fill up on soda beforehand.

Fine, the real moral: We are in control. If we feel like we’re losing control we need to stop and focus. We are the ones who make decisions about our lives.

Criticism - This one is tricky for me and probably for all of us. Many of us have probably been the butt of a fat joke or talked about behind our backs. Unfortunately, those aren’t the most damaging critics. We are our own worst critic. We can do the most damage to ourselves but we can also do the most good for ourselves. Pride yourselves in accomplishments. Be happy about progress. Only you know how hard you’re trying so give yourself credit for it.

Can’t or Can Not – I’d love to wax poetic here or draw out a nice analogy, but I’m not going to. I only have one thing to say:

YES YOU CAN!

The Schedule

Yesterday I had a bit of a mishap. I forgot my pants. You see, like most of us I live a pretty crazy schedule that would completely fall apart if I didn’t do at least some planning. Let me give you a quick rundown of my typical morning so you can get an idea.

1. 4am: Fall out of bed
2. 4:02am Go potty
3. 4:03am Pack gym bag and clothes for the day.
4. 4:07am eat breakfast and send out 3-7 tweets (occasionally a facebook post)
5. 4:15am Wake up
6. 4:20am Pack lunch and anything else I need for the day because I won’t be back home until 6pm.

I don’t come home after the gym. I have to shower and change there. We live about 20-25 minutes from where I work out, work, and go to school. It seems like we would be better off living closer to all of those places considering they’re all so close to each other, but living where we live makes sense to us. In fact, we love it here and a short commute every day (never any traffic) is not really a big deal at all anymore.

If any of the six steps mentioned above aren’t followed exactly it can potentially throw a wrench into the whole system. Well yesterday I screwed up number 3… BAD!

I could go a day without socks or without drawers. It’s not like anyone would ever know right? Going a day without pants is not quite as sleuth if you know what I mean. The worst part was the realization. I had showered, primped (deodorant, brush teeth, whatever), and was just getting ready to throw on my clothes. I emptied bag and then it hit me. NO PANTS! I unzipped all the side pockets thinking that maybe, just maybe I had decided to roll up my pants super tight and force them into a side pocket for safe keeping. Nope.

I threw on my gym shorts and ran out to my car. Maybe I just forgot to put them in the bag… I knew I hadn’t. I had no idea what I was going to do.

Then I remembered I wasn’t far from good old mom and dad’s house. What good would that do me? I mean, my dad’s a size 42 waist and my mom doesn’t generally wear slacks that I fancy. Nevertheless, I went to their house in my gym shorts and polo in hopes that my dad still had at least one pair of pants left from his fat days.

I asked my dad if he had any pants. “Just the ones in my closet, you can go look for some”, he replied. As I’m shuffling through his closet I read all the labels, 40, 42, 40, 42. This guy is really good at keeping his closet cleaned out.

In a desperation move I did the only thing I could think of, I tried on the 42’s. You know what, they fit! Not the holy-crap-these-pants-are-so-tight-the-top-button-could-turn-into-a-projectile-at-any-minute type of fit either. They felt comfortable and I think they looked pretty good too. Last time I bought pants was right after Christmas and I was wearing a size 46. Woohoo!

In the future I’ll be taking advice and either packing my gym bag the night before or keeping a pair of “emergency pants” in my car. The emergency pants could actually be useful in a lot of situations.

The Letter B

I hope that Spring Cleaning is going well. Are the cobwebs disappearing? Are you seeing things a bit more positively? Even if you aren’t yet, keep it up for 29 more days and I guarantee you will. A NMB guarantee is about as rock solid as they come. Now for the letter B:

Bacon! – Bacon will never help you lose weight. In fact, even the thought of it will make you fat. I’ve never met anyone who could stop at one strip. I’ve heard of people dipping their bacon in chocolate or wrapping it around a candy bar. Bacon is definitely a B-ad word for weight loss!  (special thanks to waterballoonist.blogspot.com for noticing my oversight)

Boredom - How many times do we say or think to ourselves “I’m so bored”? Boredom is basically a trigger that says “feed me, feed me, feed me.” Ask yourself why you’re bored. Are you hung up on the fact that a friend or family member is “always doing something fun”? Why can’t you be that friend or family member? Activity is boredom’s nemesis. Get up and get moving and you’ll quickly see that ugly B word disappear from your vocab and thinking.

Betrayal - How many of us have had our trust broken? I’m sure we all have at one time or another. If you haven’t yet, you probably will. There are few feelings as icky as betrayal. So how do we get past a Benedict Arnold? We forgive. Forgiveness is so healthy and is a total mind cleanse. Holding grudges can do so much damage. Relationships may never be the same after betrayal, but WE are in control of whether or not we forgive.

Binge Eating - Oh the pattern that quickly has us going from “just one little cookie won’t hurt” to “is that entire pack of Oreos gone already?” We’ve all experienced it and it’s incredibly dangerous. Nothing like working out, eating good for 90% of the day and then throwing it all away because we lost self control for just a minute. One thing that helps me to combat binging is to be very conscious of what it is I’m putting into my body. Every time I go to eat I ask myself “What is my body going to do with this?” Also, getting up early and working out helps me to not want to ruin the hard work I’ve put in for the day.

As for the weigh in I have a few excuses to make before I post the numbers. My dog ate my homework. My 1 year old ate my dog, and my mechanic hates skinny people and filled my gas tank with Crisco which somehow infused itself into my bloodstream. I know, it sounds crazy…

In all honesty this was a pretty rough week for me. It was one of those weeks full of “life”, ya know? A trip to the emergent care, a head cold with dizzy spells, and a weekend funeral pretty much sum up the excitement that was my week. I did get four workouts in (I usually get six) but my nutrition was sub par. Hence, these results:

Initial Weight : 388
Last Week’s Weight: 276
Current Weight: 276
This Week’s Weight Loss: 0 lbs.
Total loss so far: 112 lbs.
This week’s dance: The Fox Trot

I chose the fox trot because I couldn’t think of anything more boring. It kind of seemed to match my results…just plain boring. There is some excitement coming up though. You see, instead of some stranger doing the weekly weigh in dance, all future dances will be performed by yours truly! What am I getting myself into?

This week is a new week and I’m already right back on track and going strong. Now for a little Spring Cleaning:

Imagine that your brain is a computer (shouldn’t be too much of a stretch); a computer that is as old as you are. Think of all the junk that has been built up over all these years. The negative thinking has basically created a giant mesh of corrupt files and viruses wanting you to purchases the miracle diet pill. Let’s start our cleaning by starting right at the beginning; the letter A. Here is a list of words starting with the letter A that are sure to block our progress:

Anger - Anger is dangerous. We’ve all been mad before. Those feeling of hostility and aggression are no good and will surely keep us from reaching any goals we set.

Anxiety – Anxiety is the ultimate “what if.” We get nervous about taking steps we’ve never taken before. I’m the first to admit that this one is hard to shed. However, I do know that the more steps I take in the right direction, the less anxious I become about new milestones.

Abandonment – How many times does the fat kid feel like he’s alone on an island? How often do we feel excluded or alone because we’re not quite as fit as the next person? We can combat this feeling by including ourselves in activities and going out of our way to be part of a group. Seclusion will only make matters worse.

Argument – But what if I’m right and they’re wrong? Then what? Arguing always reminds me of this comic:

courtesy of xkcd

Sometimes we just need to be humble and let things go. It’s that simple. Being right isn’t always best and being argumentative definitely isn’t going to promote weight loss.

Addiction – How many of us are food addicts? If we’re shaking our heads no then we need to start at the “admit there’s a problem” step. I love food tremendously and fight off cravings every day. We break an addiction the same way we work on weight loss — one day at a time.

Allowing Ourselves to Be Taken Advantage Of – We don’t do that do we? *tongue planted firmly in cheek*I don’t know if it’s because we seek approval or want people to like us, but we often allow our relationships to become very one-sided. Are our friends and family working as hard on the relationship as we are?

That brings day two of the NMB spring clean to a close. We wrapped up the letter A and now we can delete those ugly files from our database. I can’t wait to get rid of that junky B folder!

It was quite the experience. I’m still not totally sure how I feel about the whole process. It was a bigger step than I had anticipated but it was definitely necessary. The entire time I was cleaning out the clothes I kept thinking to myself, “these are some really nice clothes, what about all the money I spent on them? Maybe I should keep them around for a while. What if I gain the weight back?”

Here are a few photos of the wreckage:

The Math

Now some of you may be wondering how I came up with a ridiculous number like $1,615. Believe it or not there was a little method to the madness. Keep in mind that all of these clothes came from Big & Tall stores. If the prices seem a bit high that is why, but I think the prices are all reasonable and probably on the low end of what I actually paid. Here’s a list of the stuff I threw out and the average cost for each item:

19 Polo Shirts x $30 Each = $570
2 Pairs of Jeans x $50 Each = $100
12 T-Shirts x $10 Each = $120
1 Custom Football Jersey x $75 = $75
6 Dress Shirts x $50 Each = $300
9 Pairs of Pants x $50 Each = $450

Grand Total = $1,615

Now the dollar amount isn’t all that important unless you’re me. You see, I’m cheap. I do not like getting rid of things that I “might be able to use some day” or “might be worth something.” Sure I could have tried to sell them on eBay or craigslist, but this experience isn’t about what I lost, it’s about what I gained.

Gaining Freedom

Today I got some freedom back; freedom from the negative thinking and self doubt that has held me captive for so many years. What kind of message was I sending to myself by keeping the clothes for so long? I was subliminally planting a “what if” message in my head. We all do it. We all question our abilities. Lots of times we don’t even do it consciously. Taking the steps to rid our minds of those negative thinking patterns is liberating. $1,615 seems like a pretty reasonable price for persistent positive thinking with a side dish of freedom.

Priming our Minds for Success

This was just the first step. There are so many more. That’s why March is going to be Spring Cleaning month here at NMB. For the next 30 days we are going to train our minds to get rid of negative, self defeating language and thought. We will replace can’t with can and doubt with faith. Every day this month I will have a blog post containing 3 to 4 words that we use every day that create mental blocks for weight loss. Although the specific application of these negative words is weight loss, I think we’ll be surprised to find how many of them create mental obstacles in many aspects of our lives.

The goal is to end up with 100 words that create mental blocks for weight loss. Maybe 99 or 101, we’ll see. Each day as I post the new words I want you to be conscious of your use of the words for that day. If you use the word in a negative connotation I expect you let the world know by tweeting out (or commenting here) “I used a naughty word today: [insert word] #nmbspringclean.” I guarantee that by the end of 30 days our outlook will be more positive and our language will be more “clean”; not in a “fartdamnhell” sort of way, but in an “I can do hard things” kind of way. Reporting the transgression is important because it’s the only way that we can offer each other help and train ourselves to be more positive.

Please join with me in this effort. Spread the word far and wide because everyone (not just people trying to lose weight) can benefit from this. It will be interesting to see how differently we see things in 30 days. We are all capable of amazing things but sometimes the hardest person to convince of that is the man (or woman) in the mirror. Not for long…

P.S. No clothing was harmed in the creation of this blog post. I donated all of the clothing locally to people who can use it.