Starting All Over

Long time no see! I've been battling this weight issue for a long time now.  Seems like forever actually.  Now I'm not usually one to hop from weight loss trend to weight loss trend, but I recently took on a new challenge.  I am proud to announce that this past week my wife has become an Advocare Independent Distributor.

To that end, today is day 1 of The 24 Day Challenge. The 24 Day Challenge is broken up into 2 phases. The Cleanse Phase which is days 1 through 10 and the Burn Phase, which is days 11 through 24.  As I have done in the past I am going to give a review of the product as I am going through it.  How often I will post?  Honestly I am not sure.  Your guess is as good as mine.

So as I stated before today is Day 1.  To be honest it was harder than I thought it would be, but not in the way I thought.  I expected to be hungry, after looking at what I would be eating today.  In fact it was the exact opposite.  So much so that by dinner time I couldn't finish my salad.  It had me eating every three hours, while drinking a gallon of water through out the day.  Granted I was only eating fruits and vegetables, but it was all very filling.

Tomorrow, I get to add protein back into the equation, plus being able to work out.  I am very curious to see how I feel tomorrow and where my energy level stands. Until next time...

Re-Introductions... Part 1

Hello, my name is Stuart Janoff and I am right back where I started.  Only I wish it was that simple.  You see it would be easy to say that I have gained back all of the weight I had lost.  Unfortunately there is so much more to it then just the weight.  I'm not really sure when it began, but I officially called it depression and sought help around November or December.  It did occur to me that it may have just been the holiday blues, which made sense.  I did come to the conclusion that it did get particularly bad around the holidays every year.  However this time it was different, because on January 26th for the first time in my life I contemplated taking my own life.  What is even worse is that I was thinking about this 8 months after my wife Allie's brother lost his life to suicide.  That is how low I felt at that moment.  How could I possibly be thinking of putting my family through that again?  Oh, only if I had the guts to share with you all of my thoughts.  Lets just say that one person can only take so much, before he breaks.  That is what I did, I broke.

If there is one thing I find ironic and sad at the time, it's that I wanted to be under 200 pounds. by my 40th Birthday.  Well not only didn't that happen but I gain just about everything that I had lost back.  When I first started this journey I weighed between 280 and 290 pounds.  I currently weigh 280 pounds.  Needless to say it is not helping my depression seeing pictures of myself and being ashamed of how I looked.

In the state of mind I was in, it was very easy to take the easy way out.  Didn't feel like cooking, eh we'll order.  Bring kids home from some sort of practice, I'll just stop and grab some fast food.  Being depressed comfort food becomes your best friend.  Comfort food leads to laziness and not exercising.  Not exercising and eating comfort food leads to weight gain.  Six to seven months of this behavior leads to a 35 to 45 pound gain.

So why haven't I posted since January?  Well the depression has also hit me with writer's block.  I probably have 10 different post that I started and never finished.  Hopefully this one actually gets published.  Anyway, with the love and support of my family I feel like I finally have my feet back under me.  The fact that I am writing is a very good sign.

To be continued...

Quote of the Day

"I don't think there's such a thing as failure. To me, failure is just a necessary step to achieve a goal." 

— Phil Keoghan

Now I Am Really Excited!

Hey Gang,

As the title says, I am really excited because as you can see our Les Mills Pump program arrived today.  Can't wait to get home and start reading the material and assemble the equipment.  The fact that it is actually in my possession, really has me fired up.  Back when the program was released Allie and I talked about doing the program, but we had to wait for her to get medical clearance from her doctor after her surgery.  I honestly thought it would be like everything else and the enthusiasm would ware off and we would forget to order it.  As you can see we definitely didn't forget and now we are starting on January 16th (next Monday)!  If anyone is interested in joining us it is not to late.  Just because you can't start on the same day doesn't mean we can't all hold each other accountable.  Come one people, what are you waiting for?

So yesterday I was talking about setting my goals for 2012 and how I was having a hard time actually putting them down on paper.  I was afraid that I would be just setting myself up for failure and it would push me back into depression.  Well after speaking with my therapist and Allie we have decided on some new goals.  Ones that are going to be a little easier for me to accomplish.  So instead of setting myself up for failure, I am setting myself up for success.

With that said I have revised my goal of being 199 lbs. by my 40th Birthday on May 14th, 2012.  70 pounds would have been way to much weight to lose in just over 4 months.  So 40 by 40 it is!!  Next few goals are simple ones, but were set up to help me get back into the good habits that I had worked so hard to develop in the past.  Before this all began I used to read at least 10 pages a day of a book as well as listen to positive minded audio.  So short term goal #2 for 2012 is to read 5 to 10 pages a day.  Short term goal #3 for 2012 is to drink at least 84 ounces of water a day.  During the week this usually isn't a problem, it's during the weekend that my intake severely drops off.  Last and certainly not least short term goal for 2012 is to exercise at least 5 days a week (preferably 6 days).

So to recap immediate goals for 2012:

1. 40 pounds by my 40th Birthday.
2. Read 5 to 10 pages a day.
3. Drink 84 ounces of water a day.
4. Exercise at least 5 days a week.

On a completely separate note I know I am shouldn't have weighed myself this morning, but I did anyway.  I lost another 2 pounds since Sunday.  Now I realize a lot of this weight that is coming off of me now is weight I put on during the holidays, so I am not making to much of it.  However it is nice to see the scale moving down on a regular basis.

Until next time... Keep Pushing Your Fitness Forward!

~Stu

So Far So Good

Hey Gang,

I started changing the way I eat on Tuesday January 3rd, 2012 (changed it back to the way it used to be, the way it should be).  I weighed myself Sunday morning and was pleasantly surprised by the number I saw on the scale.  During my first week back on the healthy eating wagon I lost 3 pounds, with no exercise at all (unless you count a few games of Just Dance 2 on wii and rough housing with the kids as exercise).  I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised, because 80% of weight loss is diet, right?

So what did I learn during this week?  Well I learned I have no will power at all.  If there is junk food in the house (chocolate covered pretzels which my daughter talked me into buying), I will eat it.  If I don't have healthy and good tasting snacks readily available, I will find the non-healthy alternative.  I learned how far out of shape I let myself get.  Work around the house that I used to do with ease, is now literally a chore.  These are two things that I definitely want to change.

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on my goals for 2012 and I still am.  I'm guessing that depression has something to do with being unable to actually write down what I want to accomplish.  I said to Allie the other day, that I am afraid to say my affirmations or commit to my goals for the year, because I am  worried that I may be just setting myself up for failure.  I feel I am starting to make progress in my battle against the dark side (meaning more good moments then bad), but would not accomplishing something that I set as my goal drag me down?  What are you thoughts?  Anyone dealing with similar issues as me?  I do have one particular goal that I wanted to accomplish this year, but not sure if it is realistic anymore considering how much weight I put back on and the deadline I had set.  I wanted to weigh less then 200 lbs. by my 40th birthday on May 14, 2012.  Realistic?

Until next time.... Keep Pushing Your Fitness Forward
~Stu

Quote of the Day

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
 - Martin Luther King Jr.

This New Me Stuff Is Hard

Hey Guys,

Duh, of course it's hard right???  It is really is amazing that for the last few years more often then not I ate the right way, but a few months of not caring what I ate totally screwed everything up.  I know I just posted yesterday (even though it say January 3rd) about what I was going through. So to get rid of any confusion, Allie and I went back to making healthy choices about what we and our kids eat on January 3rd (I think I may be even more confused now).

Any way so today is Day 3, and I am finding it much harder to not give into temptation then I thought.  I find myself snacking at night once again.  Essentially ruining all of the hard work that I have put in during the day.  I'm also noticing that I am hungry more often and not nearly drinking enough water.  Once I get my water intake back up to where it should be, it will help with the hunger pangs.

OK, so enough negative for today.  How about something good?  Well I mentioned that Allie and I were starting the new Beachbody program Les Mills Pump on January 16th (still looking for people to do it with us). Well yesterday I actually ordered the program.  Believe me this was not an easy decision, because I don't exactly have a boat load of money (who does these days right?).  But I had put away some of the money I made from Beachbody and used that to buy the program.

I have to say that even in my current state of mind, I am kind of excited for this program.  Allie and I haven't done a work out program together since P90X and Slim in 6.  If you remember we did 2 months of  P90X together before not being able to finish.  Then she talked me into doing Slim in 6 (which I loved by the way!) with her.  Since then we have gone our separate ways when it comes to work out programs.  I'm a little worried that the weights that come with the program might be to light for me, but I am going to give the program everything I have and then some.

My good friend, mentor and fitness idol Mike French recently wrote a note of Facebook about doing your first round of a program, so I thought I would share some of his thoughts:

"There is a certain magic that goes with doing your very FIRST round of a Beachbody Program! Its exciting!

In today's Fitness world people want to HYBRID programs together before they even do a new program by itself!

Don't deprive the new Fitness Program of the RESPECT it DESERVES! Don't deprive yourself of getting 100% out of your first run through a workout system!

SAVOR each workout, each meal you make from the Program's Nutrition guide, each day that passes as you travel towards GRADUATION day!"

And Savor is exactly what I am going to do!  Thanks Mike!!!

Until next time....
Keep Pushing Your Fitness Forward!
~Stu