Most people try anything and everything to lose weight when first starting. They will try the latest supplements, liquid diets, eating only select foods (cabbage soup anyone), the hottest fitness craze, eating at only certain times – you get the picture. Let’s do A through Z and sticks to the wall and un-sticks my diet.
I was a proponent of the more is more approach for years and it didn’t work. Over the years as my weight climbed and my hope failed, I tried everything, many simultaneously, from being a vegetarian (failed because M&M’s are not meat!), popping Green Tea pills, cleansing in various ways, the latest exercise craze, and on and on… Then I discovered two things. Weight Watchers (WW) and the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077875-essentialism . Both teach the same thing – Do less, but better. The key to weight loss and a better, more successful life is by correctly assessing the few important priorities, focusing on these priorities exclusively, and dumping the rest. Mr. McKeown provides how to do this in his book and WW in its classed for a Essentialist’s Playbook for Weight Loss.
You can lose 170+
pounds like me by not doing everything but these three things:
Track everything you eat or drink. The best way to know how to lose weight is to
track what you eat. By consciously tracking
your food intake, you will better understand portion control and the trigger
foods you need to avoid. You use this
along with weekly weight tracking to find out what works and what foods to
avoid. That way you focus on what works,
rather than trying everything that doesn’t!
Be kind for yourself. You can’t focus on what is important if you
are unhealthy in body or your soul. It
is therefore important to focus on your health both mentally and
physically. Take time to journal
positive thoughts, rest, and relax. A
few minutes a day of being kind to yourself will not only help you lose the
stress that sabotages most people’s health.
Take time to exercise. Study upon study have shown that sitting is the
equivalent or worse to smoking for health.
It does not take much to get the exercise your body needs and craves. Get up for 10 minutes every hour and take a
walk. Also, block out 30 minutes in the
morning to recharge and energize.
Bottom line: You do
not need to do A through Z to lose weight and be a better you! All you need is the essential 1-2-3! Go out and practice Essentialism to gain a
new body and soul.
Over the last few months, I have been training to be a Spin Instructor. The thought that I could be a spin instructor a few years back was unimaginable. Cresting at 358 lbs., I could not ride a bike for more than a few minutes without one of two things happening. Either I would throw out my back, or so much pressure would be applied to a certain area that it would become numb, worse yet.
I am on the Edge of Glory
I only started to do spin after I had dropped some weight. Then, I fell in love with spinning. Part of it was the music, part of it was the exhilaration, but most of it was my instructor, Corey Ellis. You can read more about this hero of health in this blog. Heroes of Health Series, Episode 2 – Corey the Cycling King
I knew I had to go that extra step after finishing 4 hours of spinning during Lifetime Fitness St. Jude’s Fund Raiser – Ride for a Reason. I decided to get certified as a Spin Instructor. The added benefit is I get to be trained to Corey. See the picture of me, Corey, Kaisa, and another cyclist after the Race for the Cure.
On October 20th, I will get the chance to teach part of a Spin Class for the first time and I am totally stoked. I have come up with my Simple Set (a series of spinning intervals timed to a music) that speaks to both my weight loss journey and obstacles that we all need to overcome in life.
I have come up for a title and a subtitle for my Simple Set. The main title is For Excellence We Strive. The secondary title is called “Don’t Stop Believing, Even When You Are Living on A Prayer, Because You Could Be on The Edge of Glory” (a careful read will tell you the name of my songs!). Here is the meaning of the two titles.
The main title is “For Excellence We Strive” for two reasons. First, it is the motto for my class at West Point, the class of 85 (more later). The second reason is during the training, the cyclist will have three opportunities to strive for excellence only to be beat it in the next interval. Why? Because the excellence of today is the mediocrity of tomorrow. You must always strive for excellence, and when you achieve your goal, it is not time to revel and become complacent. No, it’s time to strap on your cycling shoes, clip in, and race to beat your previous best!
I will not repeat the second title but instead tell you why I picked the three songs:
Don’t Stop Believing – Journey. This first song represents the start of my weight loss journey and simulates climbing up a hill that slowly ascends. As you make the first few steps on the path to health, it is important not to stop believing you can do it. Even though the climb is getting harder after the first few moments of success, you need to keep pushing.
Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi. This second song is prefect for the mid part of any weight loss journey. Three times in this song, you climb up as you pray that you overcome the next obstacle that is in your way. And three times, you reach the exhilaration as you find success; only to meet the next hill. I also picked this song because it has the lyric “Oh your half way there, oh Living on a Prayer”. I remember my half way there moment on my weight loss journey. It was at my 30th West Point Reunion when I had lost one half of my weight goal (see picture below)
Half Way There – West Point Reunion
Also, many times as I got stuck, I was Living on A Prayer. Praying that I would not give up. Praying that I could do it. Praying for a New Life!
On the Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga. I will not lie. I picked this last song as a tribute to Lady Gaga after seeing her performance on a “Star is Born”. But, then I realized how well it fit. Ask any Lifetime member of Wellness that Works (the organization formerly known as Weight Watchers) and they will tell you the last few pounds to your goal are the hardest. But it is essential not to stop when you are on the Edge of Glory. The song is perfect for this last set because during the verses you climb large hills but then at the end you feel the exhilaration of the chorus as you spin out at 110 RPMs!
So, there you have it. I am on the Edge of Glory and hopefully I will achieve it on October 20th. If interested, message or text me when we solidify the exact time. It will be at Lifetime Fitness Austin (still trying to figure if it is North or South).
This is the second of my heroes of health series which recognizes people that helped me and others to be healthy and happy. You who follow my blog know that there have been two institutions that were critical in restoring and now maintaining my health: Weight Watchers and Life Time Fitness. In my first of this episode, I wrote about my foremost hero at Weight Watchers – Julie Faircloth (read here Heroes in Health Episode 1: MOTHER of Weight Loss and a Freestyle Life). In this one, I write about a guy who has not only encouraged me to take my health to another level but soon will be my instructor in doing so for others – Life Time’s Spin master Corey Ellis.
On a whim back in November 2017, I decided to try my hand (or better yet my bottom) at Spin Class. Back in 2015, when I topped out at 358 lbs., riding a bike would have been unthinkable. I could only sit on a bike seat for a matter of moments before my back (and other things) would become compressed. You can read more about those times, my first small steps at fitness with Water Aerobics, and the role Life Time played in getting fit enough to spin in this blog. Forward to F.I.T – The Tale of Pam *2
Now with my health tenuous but restored, I decided to shake it up and try something different from the usual elliptical training and walking that I did. I walked into the 11:15 Sunday Spin class, not knowing what to expect but eager to start my next fitness addiction. Little did I know how hooked I would get.
I was staring at the bike not knowing how to size it or stick my feet in the cages and up walks a guy that looked like a linebacker from the Cowboys – Corey. He offered to help me which I thought was a nice gesture from a fellow classmate. He sized the bike and showed me how to strap in. While he was doing it, I noticed a bunch of people coming up to talk to him and say hello. I soon realized that he was not a fellow classmate, but the instructor. Not only a Spin class teacher, but one of the most accomplished at Life Time, certified in all three types of Spin Class, EDG, Power, and AMP (essentially dancing on a bike).
Corey is a phenomenal motivator, teacher, and Spin instructor (as well as all around good guy). I cannot explain the exhilaration that I and the rest of the packed class feels at the end or the fun we have during it. But I am going to try to distill down into three points why I consider Corey to be a hero in health.
The Ultimate Professional – Corey is the ultimate student of spin and he takes his craft very seriously. He is always attending conferences and training sessions to bring best practices to work out more efficiently and bring the latest and greatest to the class. Just today, he took us through a new technique that he learned while at a conference in Houston. In addition, he demonstrates his professionalism through he pre-class preparation. Each song is selected for its timing and the rhythm is matched to the needed RPM and Watts. When he says the next interval will be 1 minute from the press of the stage button, it is! In addition, he explains exactly the method to his madness, so you understand the reason for the workout.
An Innovator – Corey also has a background as a music DJ and producer. He uses this background to bring innovation both to our exercise routine through precise timing and rhythm. Also, the music itself is innovative. He has a saying that Brittany Spears goes with anything and proves it. He has made mixes with Brittany and other artists that you would never think would go together. He also has made whole spin session sets aligned to a theme. I loved his session during the Super bowl when he had competing music from Philly and Boston.
Making Fitness Fun – The best part of the spinning with Corey is that it is fun. He always interjects humor while we are sweating away. He is a Master of Music and will throw in several interesting points about each singer. He also throws in some jokes about the theme of the day. Also, he knows almost every person by name and brings out interesting facts about your fellow classmates. We also have interesting competitions like who can get to a mile first. Lastly, he shares his life with us. We all had the pleasure to meet his mother who is his biggest fan and who on occasion calls in or attends the class.
Because of Corey’s professionalism, innovation, and proclivity for fun, I have reached new goals. See below the picture of me, Corey, Kaisa and another participant after the St. Jude Challenge. This was a 4-hour spin class that Corey and others led, and I was pleased to finish! Lastly, Corey has inspired me so much that I have signed up to take Spin Class certification. Not sure if I can match my hero but I am going to try.
For the followers of my blog, this is the short form of this blog. The longer form is here. Long Form
My son Kyle turned me on to Tim Ferriss, the podcast king, a few years back. What I love about Tim and the stories he tells is he always strives to do something new, something impossible. Just to name two of the incredible things he has done is teach himself to swim a mile in one week and to become Jujitsu World Champ in a few months! You can listen to more of Tim here! Tim Blog
Another one of my favorite podcasters is Father Mike Schmitz. Recently he did a series on the definition and examples of courage. According to Father Mike, “Fear is not taken away, courage is given!” To paraphrase, you cannot be truly courageous without fear. Courage is striking out even when you have that dry pit in your stomach. Indeed, being fearless is a bit of a misnomer. You must drive through your fears to become a better person, a better you.
To be like Mike and to take on Tim, I started the practice a few years back to declare improbable goals and then set out a plan to accomplish them. I used these goals and the efforts to reach them to overcome fear, gain confidence, and lose weight. The best example of this is finishing a Kennedy Walk – 50 miles in 20 hours or less.
When I started my weight loss journey in 2015, walking 50 yards was hard enough. I was 358 lbs. with a distinct fear of throwing out my back even walking around the block. I tell you all this to understand just how impossible this goal seemed at the time. To me, it was just short of climbing Mt. Everest.
I needed something big to compel me forward, something with my back history was just a bit scary. I wanted to walk a long distance. I started to research on the internet what was equivalent to a marathon but for walkers. And I found it – the Kennedy Walk. The Kennedy walk was established by John F. Kennedy to demonstrate the fitness of the Armed Forces. It must be completed in 20 hours. Bobby Kennedy famously completed the walk one winter’s day in his loafers walking along the Potomac.
One key element for establishing a large goal was done, I now had the target. But I needed a second element – a reason. The reason in this case was more important than the goal. I wanted to honor a former colleague in the Army who was lost while serving this country in Afghanistan – Richard McEvoy and to raise money for returning vets. Dick was KIA in Afghanistan on August 22nd, 2015 while training the Afghani police. He was a contractor after serving 28 years in the service. Col McEvoy (then Captain) and I served together in the 3-60 Infantry Battalion. He was the epitome of the USMA motto: Duty, Honor, and Country. In honor of Dick, the walk served as a fund raiser for the Merivis Foundation, a non-profit that trains returning veterans in Austin for the IT industry and the Young Marines, a service group in Austin.
With a worthy cause and a goal firmly established, I set out to complete a 50 mile walk in 20 hours or less. But I could not do it all at once. So, I broke it out in sizeable chunks. I also picked a venue – the Lady Bird Lake trail in Austin – that could be walked 5 times to equal 50 miles. So, in the spring of 2016, I started to train for the first Annual McEvoy Memorial Kennedy Walk.
Every Saturday, I took an increasingly longer walk. Lady Bird Lake trail was the perfect venue. It is shaded much of the way, had adequate rest rooms and water and the city was immediately reachable. I started breaking up some of my longer walks by stopping at a restaurant or store to eat some healthy food/snacks (and ok a beer). Slowly, I went from 3 to 5 to 10 to 30 miles! I was ready.
I finished the 50 miles, McEvoy Memorial, Kennedy Walk on Nov. 5, 1986. Here is a video of me introducing it. Kennedy Walk
Here is me at the finish.
I made it in approximately 16 and a half hours. The drive to finish the walk gave me the impetus to reach the Lifetime distinction at Weight Watchers. As I walked along the path, I thought about how striving for big goals helped me to serve a great cause and to become smaller in weight and more confident in my health. I came up with these three major elements that commend the art of setting improbable goals.
Compelling Purpose to Move Forward – Setting a major goal that seems improbable gives you added motivation to stick with the day to day difficulty of staying on track. Once I set the goal, I could not let myself, the Veterans, and the memory of my colleague down. Life is indeed 90% perspiration, but you need the 10% of inspiration to compel you forward to a better you.
Decomposable into Smaller Chunks – You cannot achieve monumental goals in a day or a week (unless you are Tim Ferris who makes a living out of it). For ordinary people such as myself, the only way to achieve something big is to plan to break it down into smaller chunks. In this case, the selection of the Lady Bird Lake loop was the perfect venue.
A Cause Worthy of the Effort – When you are selecting an improbable goal, it is important to back it with a worthy cause. In this case, the cause was worthier that the effort. Our Veterans, both the fallen and the living, protect us and sacrifice for a greater purpose themselves – the freedom and liberty of the United States. 50 miles is not nearly enough to walk for sacrifices they have given.
On Memorial Day, I will do a five-part sequel to this blog with the words that I spoke at each 10-mile mark in 2016. Never forget our soldiers and service people this Memorial Day.
