Fat Guy Diary

Tag: Positive Thinking

  • My ‘why’ has gotten bigger!

    My ‘why’ has gotten bigger!

    My ‘why’ has gotten bigger!

    I WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE combating our obesity epidemic!

    My passion is to be healthy, fit, and strong enough to best help my family, friends, and community. It is my ‘why’ and it keeps me moving forward on my journey through all the highs and lows I experience.  I have worked on this for the past 8 ½ years. I am not perfect, but I am in a much better place to pursue my passion and live my ‘why’.

    Now, my ‘why’ is expanding! I want to change the obesity epidemic that plagues our country. With a third of our country obese and another third headed that way, I must do something! I want to sound the alarm! I want to wake people up! I want to turn the tide on this cursed epidemic that has become our health care crisis. It is truly a disaster!

    WHY? Because I have found my way out of my own personal fire and want to lead others out of their fire!

    I help people by coaching, nutrition support, giving away my story at fatguydiary.com, and volunteering with organizations, such as, Eat Smart Move More Charleston Tri-County. But, I feel this is not near enough for me. I have a burning desire to make a bigger difference! Bu how?

    I just finished a project that was published this month called “A Journey of Riches Personal Changes”. My contribution was a section titled “Hopeless to Amazed”. I wrote “Hopeless to Amazed” by digging deeper on my journey and because I see so many people that feel they are hopeless to change their lives, change their destiny. I want people to know they CAN change their life, they CAN change their destiny!

    My starting point is simple. I am doing more speaking engagements starting October 20th and I am working on a grocery store guide with Eat Smart Move More CTC. I am looking for more opportunities to sound the alarm and give people the hope they need to start their journeys.

    I am also excited to say I am embarking on a new writing project that I have been working on since early August. A chance meeting, has brought me together with someone that is giving me the opportunity to have a bigger voice to help give people some hope and direction out of obesity and unhealthy lifestyle toward a healthier happier future. This news will be coming soon!!!!

    Note to ME and YOU: It is going to take ALL of us to turn our obesity epidemic around! Let’s do it!

     

  • Time Crunch Workouts from 10-15 minutes from TheFatGuyTheFitGuyTheBEAST

    What CAN you do in 10-15 minutes!? A Lot!

    • FIRST, Re-think your mindset! Don’t hold out for the gym or another time. Use the time you have. 10-15 minutes is better than NO minutes! I know, I started with 10-20 minutes at 360 pounds and now I am as healthy and fit as I have ever been at 57 years of age! (I’ll be 62 this May 2018)

      Jan 2018

    Workouts:

    1. Walk, jog, run, sprint (Doing sprints in intervals during a jog has become one of the more popular ways to get the benefits of both sprinting and jogging. It’s also a great way to burn a lot of calories by altering your workout slightly.
    2. Keep bands with you! Bicep Curls, back, chest, shoulders, triceps (I will bring some bands) They Are easy to use and change from exercise to exercise.
    3.   Outdoor Workout:

    §  1 minute: Warm up with a brisk walk

    §  1 minute: Speedwalk

    §  1 minute: Run

    §  1 minute: Jumping Jacks

    §  1 minute: Speedwalk

    §  1 minute: Run

    §  1 minute: Jumping Jacks

    §  1 minute: Run

    §  1 minute: Jumping Jacks

    §  1 minute: Sprint

    §  1 minute: Walk at an easy pace to cool down

    • For a good leg workout you could walk steps or bleachers and do single/double leg standing calf raises on the edge of a curb or step.
    • For a strength-focused workout do pushups (different types), squats, lunges, step ups, dips, tricep pushups, planks
    • A Quick workout is a good way to combat that Blah feeling and get you back to your peak to for a better work or play day.
    • Change intensity, variety to spice up your 15 minutes
    • Some links to help you:

    o   Quick Fit 15-Minute Exercise Program

    o   15 Minute Total Body Boot Camp

    • I have a Total Gym at home that has an amazing number of exercises you can do for your entire body in under 15 minutes. Below are links to some info about these routines.

    o   5 Minute Total Gym Workout and more

    Stop thinking about what you can’t do and start working on what you can do!

    Note to ME and YOU:  Just MOVE MORE!! Starting with 10-15 minutes each day could end up changing your life. It changed mine!

    TheFatGuyTheFitGuyTheBEAST

  • LIVING, LOVING, LOSING, LAUGHING!> LOSING

    LIVING, LOVING, LOSING, LAUGHING!> LOSING

    This is my third post on my tagline Living, Loving, Losing, Laughing! The focus today is Losing. Losing is fairly simple by  definition: 1. resulting in or likely to result in defeat < losing a battle> 2. marked by many losses <pounds>.

    Let’s take the pounds first. Losing weight, as in 150 pounds, was the most important goal between March 2, 2009 and February 27, 2010. I had to lose this weight or suffer the current and future consequences of carrying around 360 pounds plus on a 6 foot frame. I had to learn how to lose and how to take care of myself physically. I continue to work on maintenance today and how I gain and lose weight. I look at how I gain and lose muscle and fat and how that works for ME. I have learned a lot about losing weight and continue to learn how to manage those gains and losses.

    I think . Not the pounds, but the losing we experience every day in life. These losses helped to fuel my stress and binge eating. Managing these losses is as important as managing each pound. I knew in June of 2010 that we were going to lose my father-in-law, Garvin. As we dealt with this coming loss, Polly and I were able to rearrange our lives to deal with the loss her dad and help her mom, dad and family with the loss. Managing my highs and lows during this period was hard, but taught me a great deal about life, losing, and winning. Losing Garvin was tough but also taught ME a lot about ME and life.

    Also, sometimes we have to choose a timely loss to reach our ultimate goals. Other times we take a loss, learn from it and move on to develop a winning strategy. Defining what winning looks like to ME is very important. I know I cannot WIN every situation or every battle in life. But I do know I can say the Serenity Prayer and change the things I can in life. I can WIN the WINS that are important to ME.

    So, learning how to deal with losing is very important to ME. I also know that the worst type of losing  or failure is failing to try. I pray I always have the courage to change the things I can and WIN the fights I need to WIN.

    Note to ME and YOU: God grant me the serenity
    to accept the things I cannot change;
    courage to change the things I can;
    and wisdom to know the difference.

    TheFatGuy

  • POSITIVE THINKING!

    POSITIVE THINKING!

    On this long weekend in Pickens, while reflecting on being thankful for all of the great things in my life> God, people, and all, I think the thing that jumps out at me most is Positive Thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely thankful for everything I listed and more. I just realized that with Positive Thinking, I see all of these things more clearly, now.

    My last three blog posts were BALANCE, POSITIVE ATTITUDE DEFINED, and HAPPINESS! These three posts and my weekend reflection definitely have me thinking about the Power of Positive Thinking. Less than 21 months ago (at over 360 pounds) I could not begin to include the word Positive with Thinking. It was the furthest thing from my mind. A person that had always considered himself a positive person was not positive at all. I was trapped by my own weight and health issues. With all of the information I had in hand about my health issues and the enormous weight I was carrying, I could not develop a positive thought, I could not help myself and I was not particularly thankful for anything, not really. Thanks to God and Polly for creating my epiphany, my AHA moment! It started the wheels going in the right direction and helped me take care of ME!

    I just stumbled on a diagram online that illustrates how I feel and how I have been able to accomplish my fitness and weight transformation. It has four very simple steps that jumped off of the page at me and defined what I have done to date:

    1. Positive Thinking
    2. Positive Action
    3. Positive Habits
    4. Positive Results

    Many people want to know my weight loss and exercise secrets! Guess what, it all started with getting my head and heart around it. That is probably the biggest secret to my success. I developed Positive Thinking or a positive mindset as soon as I started my journey on March 2, 2009. I followed that up with Positive Action by logging and starting my day with HAW and putting the positive actions into play in my journey and in how I treated others. This lead me headfirst into Positive Habits which flow into my exercise, diet, and lifestyle. I have Positive Habits in ALL aspects of my life now not just my fitness and health (what a bonus!). And yes, Positive Results. These results include, 150 pounds lost in 363 days, off of at least 7 medications, best lab work of my life, and feeling great about ME and the people in my life!

    You could go to some fancy smancy seminar or guru to get your positive thinking going or you could just DO IT! Actions speak much louder than words. My action on March 2, 2009 was to get off of my dead butt and start my journey not knowing all of the details or answers. I was armed with a positive resolve about going in a direction to change my life. As I said on Day 1, “I do not know the final destination, but I do know I need to start the journey!” The main factor that got me going was Positive Thinking. If you need to start a journey and you are not sure where to start, start it now with Positive Thinking as the foundation and build in everything else you need. Just DO IT!

    Note to ME and YOU: Arm yourself with the Power of Positive Thinking!

    The”Positive”FatGuy