Mr. Miyagi was wrong -- it IS all about the belt

Those of you of a certain age (or those of any age who have good taste in movies) will recall this scene. I'm here to tell you Mr. Miyagi was 100 percent wrong about the belt. It DOES matter.

Okay, I'll admit that, for the purposes of Mr. Miyagi's lesson to Danielson, maybe brown, black, or a canvas belt from JC Penney doesn't matter. But for my purposes, the belt matters most right now.

Let me explain. I have a plain brown leather belt (Wal-mart instead of JC Penney, and I'm not even sure it's real leather). I don't really know the size, other than it's BIG -- it has to be to fit me. Like many belts, it has multiple holes -- in this case 5 holes.

Well, a while back I grew out of my belt. It simply wouldn't go all the way around me enough in order for me to buckle it. A few weeks earlier my wife had gone out to buy me a few shirts that were larger, since I had grown out of many of the ones I'd been wearing.

I wasn't going to get a new belt. I decided I was going to either just keep getting so much fatter all I could do was wear sweat pants with an elastic waist band, or I was going to fit back into that belt. I went the wrong way on that for a couple of weeks, gaining a couple of more pounds before finally starting this exercise and weight loss plan, but I finally managed to get rolling, six days ago.

Yesterday, at the start of Day 5, I decided to slip the belt on and see how much further I had to go before I could wear it. Guess what? I wore it to work yesterday, and again today.

Now, to say it actually fits would be stretching things a little (almost as much as I'm stretching the belt right now). It's a tad snug, even on the first hole. That's okay. Being uncomfortable is a great reminder that I need to stay focused on the diet and the working out.

And the fact that it fits at all is a milestone I hadn't expected to reach for another week or so.

But yes, I'll say again, the belt DOES matter.

If you're working on weight loss goals, pick out an article of clothing, like I did. Don't get so caught up in your body weight as simply finding some tangible thing you can measure by that means something. Pick belt, a shirt, a pair of pants, anything that you're just a little too big for, and then hit the exercise and workout plan as hard as you can, with that article of clothing in mind.

Don't pick something that's three sizes away, pick something that's one size away, or maybe a half-size, that you honestly can't wear at present, and then work. In a week, or two, or maybe three, you'll feel really good about fitting into that item, and that will help give you motivation to keep at it.

For me, I'm now thinking toward hole #2 on the old belt.

Now, for my workout and diet today....well, just as soon as I tell you all about how great things are going, I come to this and have to say I FAILED today.

Sort of.

My plan has been, at least for the first couple of weeks, to do weight training three days a week and cardio the other four. Today was one of those other four, and my intention was to get up early this morning and head to the gym for 30 minutes on the exercise bike.

I knew I was in trouble when I woke this morning and there was light filtering in through the blinds. Seems I turned off both of my alarms this morning when they went off, never really waking in the process. I wasn't late for work or anything like that, but the cardio was shot. I would have done it at night any other night, but we went to see some Irish singers and musicians tonight, so no cardio. :(

Even worse, while I was there, I had a small bag of popcorn. No butter, of course, and it was a smallish bag, but it was popped like the old-time theaters used to do, in oil that makes it really good even without the butter.

Having said all of that, here was my food for the day:

Breakfast
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites
Ham -- 2 ounces

Lunch
Whole wheat noodles -- 3/4 of serving (about 3.2 ounces on a scale)
Lean pork -- 4 ounces
Veggies -- 3/4 cup
Sesame oil -- 1 teaspoon
Soy sauce (reduced sodium) -- 1 tablespoon

Snack
Banana

Dinner
Boiled chicken breast -- 4 ounces
Mozzarella cheese -- 1/4 cup


Total for the day so far (I'll probably eat something else before I go to bed, and I'll update this if I do).

964 calories
28 grams of fat
89 grams of protein
60 ounces of water
34 ounces of diet soda

Plus the dreaded popcorn! (most every source I check say a small bag of popcorn has around 250 calories and 20 grams of fat, which would leave me within the total calories that are acceptable, but certain way too high on the fat and too low on the protein for the day)

Well, that's all for now folks. Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions or comments, put them down in the comment section and I'll respond!