Tips On Getting Healthy...from a guy

No, not Pete.  Although I should ask him sometime...

Check out this article from a former fat guy about getting healthy. 

1. Learn to love exercise.
2. Focus on short term goals.
3. Embrace vanity.
4. Don't give up the quest for looking your best.
5. Decide that you're not in the best shape of your life.
6. Eat breakfast.
7. Focus on "satisfied' not "full'.
8. Try going to bed a little hungry.
9. Get most of your calories from the grocery store.
10. Focus on low calorie density foods.

Simple things, right?  I'm here to tell you that I have trouble on the simple things.  Starting with number one.  I certainly don't love exercise, unless it's the 30 minutes after I've just completed it where I have that wonderful feeling of accomplishing something.  If I could just bottle that feeling...  I can't seem to find vanity when it counts.  And I have a hard time sleeping when my tummy sounds like 2 dinosaurs are fighting inside it.

Yet, he's right.  Eating out for Pete and I has become a feast or famine kind of thing. We go for weeks without eating out at all, then weeks were it seems like all we do is eat out.  Eating out isn't good.  You have no clue how they really prepare your items; no idea how fresh the items are or where they came from.  You can't control many parts to the meal like sodium and fats.  When I eat at home, I know what I'm making and how I made it.  Simple. 

Full vs satisfied.  I struggle with this too.  I struggle with it because I struggle with hunger.  My hunger switch is all messed up.  For a long time I was never hungry because I was eating whatever, whenever.  Real hunger is a feeling in your tummy, not an emotional switch in your head.  I struggle with learning about when I'm really hungry vs when I just want to eat.  Therefore the satisfied vs full feeling is also hard.  However, it doesn't mean that I don't try to do this.  I'm much better about taking 1 portion of food at home, eating my meal and then deciding if I'm still unsatisfied and need more.  I'm much better about leaving food on my plate when we do go out and not feeling guilty about wasting it.  But I can certainly do better with this.

I am in the best shape of my life right now.  Well except for when I was playing softball in high school.  Yet I can't let that stop me from trying to get in better shape.  I can't sit back and think that this is it.  I need to learn to love the exercise and get in better shape.  And still when I do that I need to keep seeking more.  It really is a never ending battle, not a quick thing.

This former fat guy is right on so many levels.