exercise - Weight Loss and Leadership

Two Essential Ingredients to Weight Loss – Family and Friends (Part One)

2018-02-03Don Grier1 Comment

Two key ingredients to sustained and maintained weight loss are family and friends. They are just as important to your weight loss journey as healthy food, careful tracking, water, and exercise. Family and friends inspire you to be healthy, console you when you go off plan, and applaud you as you meet milestones. It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. I say it takes your family and friends to take off the pounds and keep them off.

This has certainly been the case as I lost 170 plus pounds and kept it off over the last two + years. Here are just a few of the ways that my family have helped with my weight loss. Part two will focus on friends.

1. My wife has provided great support and companionship. She has listened patiently as I droned on about how many more Weight Watcher points a chicken thigh had compared to a chicken breast! She has kept the cabinets and fridge stocked with healthy food and has hidden away any indulgences that she likes so I can’t find them. She has asked each week how I did with my battle with the scale. Most important, she has gone on numerous hikes with me. Last year when I did my first Kennedy Walk (50 miles in one day), she walked with me for the first 10 miles at O dark thirty and finished the last 10 miles with me at 10:30 PM. Here is a picture of us before walking the Bix 7.

2. My kids encouraged me and listened to all my Dad anecdotes about my latest struggles as I turned away from my Peanut M&M addiction. They showed their support by giving me Likes on my countless Facebook posts (especially my son-in-law). They also did not gripe when our family outings changed from pizza to Brussel sprouts. Lastly, they turned me on to the latest self-help gurus like Tim Ferris that inspired me (thanks Kyle).

3. Family Pets – Boots the dog joined the weight loss journey with me. I remember that initial walk when he and I were at peak weight as we trudged up a hill on what I called our last chance workout! We both made it thankfully for Colette since she did not have to carry us up the hill (although Boots stopped for 10 minutes mid-way through)! As we lost weight together on the trails of Turkey Creek, he shared my victories and my steak. You can read more about Boots and me in this blog. The two cats have been helpful because they wake me up at 4:30 AM to let them out, thus making sure I get to the morning work out on time!

A little help from friends: Striding Subbu and Boots the Dog

4. Extended Family – My siblings and my in-laws have been companions and inspired me on my weight loss journey. My brother also took on the weight loss challenge and has lost over a 100 lbs. We really should have gone on the biggest loser and won the cash (but our health is way more important). My other brother and sister have also encouraged me with Facebook likes and encouragement. As for my wife’s family, they have been key to establishing an exercise regimen. One of my sisters in law established a monthly challenge group on Facebook. Together our team walked across Texas and challenged ourselves in fitness. One of my nieces made a group called Spreading Positivity which was a key to keeping me up when I was down!

Dance the Night, Stress and Weight Away!

2018-01-16Don GrierLeave a comment

One thing that seriously impacts your fitness and your health is the reduction of stress. One of the things that I love to do to relieve stress and get a little exercise in to boot is to dance and Karaoke. These are two of my favorite past times and one week I got to do both of them.

Our team had an informal outing to see and hear one of the musical institutions in Austin the Spazmatics. This group plays some of the best 80’s music that I have heard. It brings me back to my college years when I danced the night away to Hammer time, Devo, the Romantics and assorted new wave music. Believe it or not, I had parachute pants at one time and could do a mean rendition of “Can’t Touch This”. At the time, I thought the music could not live up to my teen years filled with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. But it has! Anyway back to the story.

We all had a great time dancing to the music and ended the night at the Karaoke club were we had another classic, song contest. The time was a great way to get over some of the stress of the work week. And beyond that, it was a fantastic way to get exercise. I broke my record for the earliest time to get 10,000 steps done pictured below. Over 10,000 steps before 2:30 AM. It also helped my fitness that I forgot where I parked! This dancing extravaganza and car search also put me over the top in meeting my goal on JIFF, a health App that works with company fitness program. I got 1,200 points on my company Accenture’s fitness program and earned a free Amazon Prime. I now get to watch NYPD Blue while working out on the Elliptical!

What are the key points for all those trying to get more active?

Exercise does not have to be drudgery on a treadmill. There are many ways to move and get your steps in!
Life is too short not to dance. Work hard but play hard also.
Singing is good for the soul but also for the body. The next time you feel beat, belt out a tune. Here is me singing a Christmas song with a twist written by one of my Weight Watcher friends in Texas.

Life’s fun and attractive when you’re Active!

Spice it up in the New Year!

2017-12-31Don GrierLeave a comment

Variety is the spice of life and it is also the not so secret ingredient to Weight Loss. During my weight loss journey over the last two years, I have found that I could break through a plateau by switching it up. That goes for switching up food choices but as importantly exercise.

I have done 10+ exercise routines besides my old standby – walking. Here are 10 of those exercise routines starting with those that I began with when I was 350+ and moving to my latest favorite – spinning. Hope these give you some ideas for your own journey into health.

Water Aerobics – This is a great exercise when you are first starting out (and great all the time). At the time I started it, I was 350+ and could walk less than a quarter mile without getting winded. I was a little self conscious wearing a bathing suit but it was a way to get moving and not put a lot of stress on my joints.
Elliptical – You may think the next exercise would be walking but when I got into the 330+ range, I could still not walk comfortably. My back would tighten up after less than a half mile. This was very humbling for a guy who did 20+ mile marches back in his younger days. But I needed to get some fitness back first so I went on the elliptical trainer for a good part of 6 months. What I would do is intervals – first level 1 – 5 (a minute each) and then 5 – 10. We had a Facebook exercise group started by Sister In Law Sheri and each day I would post a poem about my exercise that day. An example during this time period: 5 miles of the typical, rocking the elliptical (Ok not a perfect rhyme but just starting out!)
Yoga – No I still was not walking well so each Saturday I did beginner’s Yoga. This by far was the best weight loss exercise. I did not expect it. I am not a natural Yogi. First, I am as a flexible as a rock. Second, I am the opposite of calm. But I really wanted to get back to walking so I tried it. I lost 8 lbs in one class trying to do the Sun Salute routine. I never quite accomplished it. In fact, I once cratered and fell into the wall. This caused the Yoga instructor who was very calm to come up to me and say “It is ok. Get to your calm spot” I got into the child pose and muttered under my breath – “I do not want to be calm; I want to do a Sun Salute”. Even though I still struggle, the Downward Dog and other stances loosened me up so I could begin walking.
Walking and Hiking – Now that I had some of the weight off I began to walk and Hike. I spoke about my practice of the Beer Walk – find your favorite Bar that resides of a trail and walk there – in an earlier blog. Walking/hiking is the ultimate exercise and you can do it even when working. Below you see me at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin taking a call for work. I got a little enamored with walking, so much so that once I reached my goal weight, I walked 50 miles in one day – A Kennedy Walk in honor of Veterans and renewed health. But that is for a different blog!
Tabata – Near the end of my Weight Loss journey, I got stuck for 4 weeks and could not lose weight and even gained some weight. That is when I learned about Tabata – which was an exercise routine established in Japan. It is bursts of high intensity exercise all out with brief periods of rest. I got an app on IOS called Tabatach (Tabata and watch – there are others). I did this after my walk and it kicked the weight loss back into gear.
Weight Lifting – I also went to an old stand bye during this time – weight lifting. I still practice the total fatigue lifting process that was taught to me by my football coaches – Hank “the Tank” Kearns and Charlie Pirello from Northern Burlington football. You do 8 -12 reps and then negative reps (usually need a partner) until you burn out that muscle group. You then move on to the next largest muscle group until you complete a circuit. This really revs up the weight loss.
Fun Runs (and I do mean Fun) – Now that I could move well, I started to do Fun Runs again. I went back to the BIX – a 7 mile run in the Quad cities that my Brother and Sister In Law host. I had not done it in over 10 years. This year I completed it and had a little fun along the way! See me below singing Karaoke along the course!
Dancing – I love to dance. I am best when it is non-choreographed but have taken a number of Zumba classes. I once completed 20,000 steps (a later blog) dancing from midnight to 2 AM dancing to the 80’s cover group the Spazmatics.
Functional Integrated Training (F.I.T) and Body Weight Exercises. – I wrote in my blog about how I progressed from the Water Aerobics to F.I.T on a previous blog. F.I.T. involves cardio with weights and body weight exercises to get the best of both worlds. Also with the weight off, I could now do push ups again! Maybe not up to West Point Clicker-board but you judge. Here are some of the 200 pushups I did on the Veteran’s day walk that I just conducted.

10. Spinning – My most recent love is Spinning in courses offered at Life Time. AMP, Power, Edge – I do them all. I especially like Corey’s Edge class on Sunday’s along with the latest hip hop tunes.

Getting Ready for St Jude’s Ride for A Reason

And there you have it! I could have even added my Rocky (boxing routine) but that is enough for now. Get out there in 2018 and Spice It Up!