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!

Day 6 -- Busy, busy, busy

So, where you wondering where my post was for the day? I've been running about as hard as I can since getting out of bed. I work fulltime as a newspaper editor, and some days are just waaaaayyyy too busy. Not to mention that tomorrow is primary day in North Carolina, where I work, so that's kept me hopping.

A lot of days are going to be like this -- just one post, instead of two, most likely toward the end of the day. Hopefully, I'll be a little earlier in the evening than I have been today.

I did NOT let the busy schedule stop me from working out, though, as well as staying strict with the food. I'm really dragging right now, though, so I'm just going to post my eating for the day, the workout, then I'm off to bed! Tomorrow I might chat a little about JC Penney and the all-knowing Mr. Miyagi.

Okay, for my workout today. I did chest, shoulders and triceps.

Chest
Barbell Bench Press
135 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps
185 pounds, 2 sets 8 reps each
175 pounds, 2 sets, 8 reps each

Incline barbell bench press
95 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps
115 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps

Seat Machine Chest Flyes
110 pounds, 2 sets, 12 reps each.

Shoulders
Seat Barbell Overhead Press
65 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps
95 pounds, 1 set 8 reps
95 pounds, 1 set 6 reps

Seated Machines Reverse Flyes
125 pounds, 2 sets, 12 reps each

Triceps
Cable pressdown
150 pounds, 1 set of 12 reps
140 pounds, 1 set of 12 reps
120 pounds, 1 set of 12 reps

Ab work
Seated crunch
95 pounds
1 set, 15 reps
1 set, 12 reps

Now for the food.

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

Lunch
Lean pork chop, 4 ounces
Brown long grain rice, 1 cup
Mixed veggies, 3/4 cup

Snack
Banana

Dinner
Fish (pollock) -- 4 ounces
Rice -- 3/4 cup
Veggies -- 1/2 cup

Second Dinner
Protein Drink

Snack
Boiled chicken breast -- 4 ounces
Mozzarella cheese -- 1/6 cup

Totals for the day

1,354 calories
27 grams fat
139 grams protein
80 ounces of water
24 ounces of diet soda (that's LOWER folks!).

And that's all for the night!

Day 5 -- A Lost Hour and a High Blood Pressure Day

Well folks, I woke up this morning feeling pretty good -- the soreness has mostly gone, I'm already sleeping better with my diet changes, but I just keep feeling like something's missing, something is gone, something...Hey, I lost an hour!

Guess everyone else did as well. Most people complain about losing an hour of sleep. Me? I forgot to set my alarm, so I lost an hour of the day by sleeping later. Well, actually, I didn't sleep later, it's just that the clock changed to make it seem like I slept an hour later.

Oh well.

Now for the high blood-pressure day: I'm doing our taxes today. I least I promised my wife I would, so I suspect the next week will be rather unpleasant for me of I renege on that one. There's nothing inherently stressful in the information -- I know how much we made, how much we paid in taxes, and so forth, so there will be no surprises. I just hate doing them. Dread doing them. I hate having to go from one form to another, from one instruction book to another, back and forth. I think when the tax code was written, the instructions given to those who did the drafting went something like this: We want you to make this as confusing, as non-nonsensical, as inefficient as possible.

And if that's true, the people who drafted, and continually update, the tax code have been wildly successful.

Anyway, that's what's up for today. I'll be back later to update you on eating and cardio and all that good stuff for the day.