Birthday Gift

In 6 days, I'll be turning 30. I've had about 2-3 breakdowns about it, but for now I'm okay. Things are looking up.

About a month ago, I also lost my job. Instead of being crazy depressed and eating myself to happy, I hit the gym harder. I figured why not kill time between job searching and future planning than by working out? So I did, putting in 2 (or sometimes) 3 a days, really changing up my diet (yet again, nothing crazy, just mixing it up) and this morning I found out that all of this work is beginning to pay off.

Seven years ago, this number above with 73.26%. I saved that number. I remember getting it and just crying like crazy. My body, the scale and the mirror told me I was fat, and now I had yet another number to prove it.  Now, I'm down to 31%, which is within NORMAL range. That is pretty much the only thing about me that is normal. Seeing that number made me the happiest I had been in quite a while. Despite everything that could cause an emotional eater to binge, I can see that staying away from that has really paid off. I don't need to binge, because I worked too hard to get to here. While my body, scale and sometime myself, tell me that I'm fat; I can see that I'm healthy, strong and I don't have that much further to go. 

You just have to keep going. 

Determination=Results

Even though, over the last eight months, I haven't lost a ton of weight...or as much as I've wanted to, I can see the results.

(65ish pounds down (since January) and about 20 inches in 8 months)

I've been on a weight-loss journey for for seven years now. So far I've lost 165ish pounds. Which is a pretty great number for me, coming down from over 400 pounds has been quite a struggle. I battle daily with the fact that I haven't reached my goal weight in the 7 years. Any of you who have struggled yourself with weight loss, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm not one to dwell on negatives and focus on what I've learned.

1) I have to eat to live, not live to eat. You need food to survive, to live, but I don't need it when I'm sad/mad/happy/breathing/bored/celebrating/etc. I haven't turned to food as a friend in a couple years. It doesn't make up for the fact that I did for a long time. Food was there whenever I needed it to be. Now, I look at food to fuel my body. It's a hard realize that sometimes. I've come by some great coaches and friends that have helped me learn this. I've been doing the paleo diet for six weeks now. I was strict for a month. I'm going to stick with it, I'm allowing myself rice occasionally and yogurt once a day. Mostly to switch things up.

2) Exercise is super important and my body feels weird without it. I started doing Muay Thai in 2006 under Eric Haycraft (www.realfightersgym.com). BEST DECISION EVER MADE. I learned discipline, I gained a family. I learned that I'm tough, I'm strong, and that I am an athlete. I'm a fighter. I wasn't allowed to give up, I had to try every task before me. I learned to jump rope. I learned to depend on others and reach out. Moving to Nashville was hard, because I had to leave that gym and my coach. Now at HotBox (www.hb4.me), I have learned a lot of the same things. It's a different game. I've improved on my skills, power and speed. I've gained a lot of strength from circuit training classes and flexibility in yoga.

3) You can't lose weight alone. This is not a journey taken by yourself. People help you along the way. I am fiercely independent. I don't ask for help, I throw fits when people buy my drink/meal/etc, even if the tasks takes me longer without help, I'd rather do it myself. In this journey, I have learned that I have to put my hand out sometimes and ask for help. I have to have my trainer get in my face and yell at me to keep going. I need the people on my team.

Thank you, readers, for being a part of this journey too. What's next? Well, I'm going to continue down this path. I have a bit more to go. I'm focusing on getting stronger, leaner. I'm not focused as much on a number anymore. More on how my body feels.

Good luck.

-Amos

So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

Somehow, one of my kickboxing instructors talked me into doing the Paleo Diet. I had recently come to a plateau...and I was really bitter about it. So I cut back on food, my first (what I thought was logical) decision. I was eating at least 1200 calories a day, but that wasn't sufficient enough for the amount of working out I do a day.

This is definitely a growing experience, weight loss. I don't know a ton about nutrition, I know what's bad and what's good. I've been vegan, vegetarian, I'm gluten free. I've done Weight Watchers, I've been all over the map. I'm a southerner and everything is about food.

So I gave this diet a shot. What do I have to lose? Right? The first couple weeks have been hard. I have had a couple Diet Cokes, a few grains here and there, but not daily. Spending my lunch break today figuring out recipes, because I haven't cooked meat in a very long time. I haven't had red meat since my teenage years (minus my a burger at In and Out when I was in LA).

I'll keep you posted on results and how I feel. Today, the one thing I miss is peanut butter. I really miss peanut butter.