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Motivational Push
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mark Des Cotes, I have 17 swords and daggers decorating my office, and I still don’t think it’s enough, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I talk about getting a motivational push when I least expected it.
Hello to you. I hope you’ve had a great week so far. You know what? I finally cleaned off my desk this week. I went through the piles and piles of papers and either filed them away or put them in the recycling box. I must say, it looks good. Now I just have to figure out some way of keeping it clean.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day: Did you know that the term “Beatlemania” is Canadian? Sandy Gardiner, a journalist with the Ottawa Journal in the 60′ coined the term while writing a story about the Beatles.
Here’s What I leaned yesterday.
Back in January, Darrell, myself and a few others via the Friday Forum proclaimed our goals for the year in the hopes that making them public would keep us accountable. One of my goals was to loose weight. At the beginning of January I weighed 234 Lbs. I set the goal of loosing 34 Lbs. before Podcast Movement which starts August 31st.
This wasn’t an unrealistic goal, I needed to loose less than 2 lbs. per week which is quite reasonable.
If you are part of the Stuff I Learned Yesterday Facebook group, and you really should be if you aren’t, you may recall my posting weekly updates on my progress.
I was doing good at the start, loosing a couple of pounds almost every week. And I was enjoying the well wishes form those in the group. After several weeks I was down 14 Lbs, and felt great.
Then there were a few weeks where I would stay the same or loose only a little bit, followed by weeks where I gained some back and so on. During those weeks I received lots of well wishes and encouragement to keep at it.
Those of you in the group may have noticed that I haven’t posted an update in a while. I’ll be honest and tell you that I haven’t posted because I’ve been discouraged. It’s now 5 months since I made my goal and with the ups and downs I’m only 9 Lbs. lighter than when I started. I’ve gained 3 in the last week.
At first I tried telling myself that it was the whole muscle weighs more than fat thing. Part of my sporadic exercise routine is lifting weights. And I must say, in that part I’m actually happy. For the first time in my life I can actually see definition in my biceps when I flex. Not a lot, but it’s there, which is a big deal for me and it’s encouraging.
I know it’s true that muscle does weigh more than fat but I seriously doubt that the half inch or so I gained on my arms is offsetting anything I should have lost from my mid section. My size 38 pants feel just as tight as they did before.
So it’s been discouraging. I had high hopes of accomplishing my goal. But the longer it takes the harder it is to stay on track and I find myself not caring. I’m not going back to junk food, which was my problem before, but with portion sizes. I’m eating larger plates than I really need to.
I know a lot of this is mental. I look at the calendar and see just over 2 months until Podcast Movement and I can’t see myself loosing the remaining 25 Lbs. by then, so why try.
Or at least that’s what I was thinking.
Last week Scott posted in our Facebook group. I hope he doesn’t mind but I want to read to you what he wrote.
I have been kind of reluctant to post updates on my goals for the year. It’s just me; I’m always afraid I will be perceived as bragging or self-promoting, which I find very uncomfortable…
But this time, I want to share. One of my goals for the year was to lose 30 pounds to help my heart and general health. I am pleased – and somewhat amazed – to announce that I reached that goal yesterday, after just about 6 months. So I am adding a stretch goal (or in my case, a stretch mark goal) of an additional 20 pounds for the rest of the year. I don’t know if I will make it or not, but I am going to try. Thanks to all of you for your encouragement and most especially to Darrell Darnell and Mark Des Cotes for creating such a positive and supportive environment. I am sure I would have tried this either way, but I am not sure I would have succeeded were it not for my SILY buds. You are an inspiration – bless each and every one of you.
Now I don’t know Scott personally, I only know him through his posts in our group. But he affected me deeply. He gave me the motivational push I need. We were on the same journey but Scott lost the weight where I didn’t. And even though I’ve never met him I’m still so proud of him. He was worried about bragging or coming off as self-promoting but nothing could be further. To me he came off as encouraging. He thanked Darrell and I for our help but I want to turn the tables on him and say thank you Scott. You are the motivational push I needed to get back on track and reach my goal. Maybe not by Podcast Movement, but I will reach it.
Here’s what I learned.
Sometimes you need a pat on the back but other times you need a kick in the but. Scott’s post on our SILY Facebook group was the latter for me.
I know I can do this. I’ve done it before. A few years ago I jointed Weight Watchers and dropped down to 196 Lbs. I was 11 away from my ultimate goal of weighing 185 when I stopped the program. I didn’t give up, I just decided to stop paying the monthly fee and continue on my own. I figured that after a year and a half I knew enough of the WW program that I could do it myself.
I was wrong, I slowly gained it all back and then some. I could go back on Weight Watchers again but the thought of weighing my food and counting points again doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
By coincidence, my wife showed me an infomercial on Sunday for some weight loss/exercise plan that looked kind of neat. She’s been feeling lazy lately and has been wanting to try something besides her yoga and pilates. This plan sounded simple enough. You have various containers that you fill up with whatever food you want and that’s what you eat that day. I know it’s a bit more complicated than that but I’m not going to go into it here.
After watching the infomercial with her I told her let’s order it for both of us. I’m willing to give it a try to see if it’s the boost I need. I’m not expecting a miracle, I only want a step in the right direction.
Scott’s post gave me the motivational push I needed. Maybe this container thing my wife wanted will make it easier. Regardless, It’s all up to me and I’m ready to dig in and get it done.
I’m Mark Des Cotes and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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