Consumption Control

 In a world of oversized portions and high calorie foods how do you control what you eat? Tweet

I drive from 43^rd ave and Union Hills Drive to 43^rd ave and Glendale and back at least 5 days a week. As I drive I pass a bunch of places that I could stop and eat food. Some are easy to pass others are not so easy.

How do I ignore that gnawing feeling in my stomach telling me to stop and grab a bite from here or there?

Eat Before you leave:

This is the first thing you need to do to make sure that you do not stop and waste a fuel stop on a 1000 calorie hamburger or load up on fats from a fast food joint.

If you are craving a burger don’t wait till you are on the road, grab a turkey burger patty out of your freezer and fire up your George Forman grill and grill the fat out of a delicious burger you can make at home. Don’t have time to prepare a burger from scratch before work? Prep everything when you have time and then all you have to do is flop your meat on the grill while you get ready and then fix your bun and you have a quick delicious substitute to that fatty, dry, heat lamp burger. Still don’t have time before work, while you can always prep a salad in a plastic bowl with a lid and take it with you eating an apple, carrots, or cucumbers as you get ready and then following or next tip to get you to work worry free.

Drink Water!

This is the second tip I discuss but it is actually quite a bit more important than the first tip.

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water you should always have a water bottle on hand and you should refill it as soon as it is empty with good quality water… If it’s brown turn it down! Water is better for you if it has high alkaline levels, that’s not saying you should walk around with water test strips but I do recommend drinking from a trusted source… not all SODA companies can be trusted to provide you with good quality water, do some research. Anytime you begin to feel hungry grab a light snack, fruits or veggies, and your water.

Water does two things:

It fills the space that your body wants to fill with food so that if you do eat you get full faster.

It rehydrates you… you can begin to feel hungry if your body has not been hydrated properly.

I have a water dispenser that I bought at Walmart and I have a five gallon jug on it that I fill at the water store down the street from my house, when it is not 110 degrees I carry the water jug it is about a half mile or so which is good exercise. I have a large size water bottle that I always have on me and I am always drinking from. Even with as much water as I drink, I do not drink soda at all, I have a hydrationindex of -3.2.

Eat fiber

YUCK. Why would I want to eat cardboard flavored cereal?

Yes original flavor fiber one taste horrible and I do not like to eat it either but there are other flavors that do not taste half bad and you can also eat fruit. Fora list of the ten best sources of fiber check out this post.

Fiber is awesome

It helps you stay full for longer, because it takes longer for your body to digest it.

It helps you poop on schedule, if I eat a bowl of fiber one cereal every day I can count on dropping the kids off at the pool at around 10 every morning.

If you are trying to lose weight fiber helps your body flush out the excess fat in your digestive track

Finally it helps you drop those rock hard poos you always dream of.

While it is important to poop on a regular basis do not get carried away and keep a log of logs… unless your into that kind of thing.

Eat Enough

Everyone is on a diet

It does not matter if you are vegetarian, vegan, carnivore, omnivore; if you are on the Atkins diet or the SEE FOOD diet. You want to eat enough to make you not hungry, if you feel like you are about to pop 20 minutes after you eat then you tried to consume enough to feed a third world country!

The suggested serving size is just that SUGGESTED, only you know what you need to eat to be satisfied but do not overfill and make ever calorie count… not to be confused with count every calorie.

Count Calories

This is the most tedious and annoying thing in the world and you will hate every god forsaken second of it and you will curse my name and your name and whatever website you are using to track your calorie intake, but it is a good tool. This is temporary, you count calories for a couple of months. Once you get a routine down and understand serving sizes you will be able to prepare a menu or plate for yourself without over consuming.

Keep your goal in mind

This is the hardest one because as you drive past your favorite fast food hole in the wall, or what have you, you will not be thinking I need to drop a unspecified number of pounds you will be thinking my stomach is growling, when was the last time I ate, I don’t want the nasty salad sitting in my passenger seat, I want a deliciously horribly tasteless heat lamp burger on stale buns.

Last but not least think about the last thing you think about in the above point

Deliciously Horribly Tasteless heat lamp burger on stale buns.

If your still hungry after that eat something healthy like a sandwich from a sandwich shop or the salad bar at a salad bar having place.

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Have a Happy and Healthy week

Thomas Gould

How to balance working out with working

"Sporadic work schedules make for a non-existent workout schedule." Don't be a twit! Send a Tweet!

As a manager and driver for a major pizza chain I work a lot and my schedule from day to day is never the same.

So how do I find time to work out?

While it is ideal for you to not only have a set work schedule but also have a set exercise schedule that is not always a viable option. In my case one day I may work 9 am to 7 pm and the next I may work 5 pm to 2 am which does not provide me the ability to exercise on a set routine. In order for me to find time to work out I have to communicate my needs, monitor my schedule, and avoid procrastinating.

The key to having the time you need to do the things you want is to communicate your needs to those that control your schedule. If you have a direct supervisor then let them know that you would like time to go to the gym. If they are like myself and try an accommodate your needs when making the schedule then you will get a "better" shot at a set workout schedule. Since there will still be days I have to open and close since I am the only one available I have a gym membership to a literally 24hr gym, this allows me the flexibility to go when ever I have the time.

I know that there are going to be days that I have to close, I am the only driver available in my store to close on Tuesdays, so I will schedule most of my workouts in the morning. This also allows me the opportunity to request mostly closing shifts since I need to be available at 3 on weekdays to pick my kid up from school. Each bit of information about my schedule gives me a more accurate brick of time that is possible for me to workout. Since my kid has to be at school at 8 am and I have to pick him up at 3 pm that gives me the brick of time between dropping him off and picking him up to workout.

I know that if I go drop him off and then come back home I will end up going back to bed and sleeping the day I way. So since I am already out and my gym is always open I can and should go right after I drop my son off. This also gives my body time to recover before having to drive a bunch and allows a shower. If I were to procrastinate and not go right away I would either not get up in time to workout at all or I would go and have to cut my time short and I may not get a shower in before pick him up. You do not want to be that guy that smells like BO and sweat at work. I was that guy once, I thought nobody noticed but they all commented later.

It is important that no matter how you find the time to workout that you make sure you find the time. If you are TO TIRED to workout, TO BAD go do it anyway your body will stop being to tired. Once you get the blood pumping and you start to get a routine going your body will retain the ability to workout. Having a varying schedule may be good for you as well, it will stop your body from storing energy till that time when you go to the gym everyday, because it will never know when you are going to go.

Sorry I do not have pictures for you today, this post is already late.

Have a Happy and Healthy day!




Thomas Gould

Being Successful is a choice!

"Failure is necessary, success is optional!"

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Today was supposed to be: "the day."
I was supposed to be ready to enlist by today.

Unfortunately I have failed, I have been in a funk since I went to see the recruiters back in June, I have not been motivated to push and have not been sticking to my diet or any kind of work out routine. I have actually gained 5 lbs since the recruiter which puts me further behind.




This was an inevitable failure. I was pushing my self really hard and driving too hard toward a goal that I knew was possibly unattainable (Seal training) and then when I failed my vision test I went into a tail spin of binge eating, laziness, and COOKIES!!! (lots and lots of delicious cookies)

I was told that I will be put into the assistant manager training at my current job so that I can go in front of the review board in December.

So here I was presented with two options do the hard thing and work my butt off (literally) and join the military by August 1st, or take the easy route and go through the training for Assistant Manager.

While each choice has its benefits and its costs there is only one choice where someday I can be awesome. I obviously made the wrong choice, and because of it I failed at my goal.

Now it is time to shift gears, revisit my goals, and make my failure a success. I need to follow my own advice and make a list of goals that I need to meet and move forward following a plan geared toward meeting those goals. Also I need to pick a goal completion date that I can realistically meet.

Adventures in Finding the Perfect Snack

The key to every good diet is eating... According to Michigan.gov (No I do not live in Michigan) One of the reasons fad diets fail is that: "Diets Deprive us."

Average diets tell us when and how much we are allowed to eat. They give us certain foods to stay away from and demand that we eat other ridiculously expensive foods or foods that taste like shit... Like Acai Berries.

I do not know about the rest of you but I do not have a lot of money; I can not afford and do not have the time to cook every night. I work a very demanding job and finding the time to eat can be hard.

Thats where nature box comes in!

NatureBox has many options to serve your needs.

1. Just feeding yourself at your desk while at work - try out the $13.95 option, recommended for an army of 1, and choose three snacks and take the bags to work with you... its better than grabbing a doughnut out of the break room.
2. Got a Battle Buddy or Family that needs some snacks to - The Deluxe Box is recommended for 1 - 3 people and lets you choose 5 snacks that you can share. and it only costs $19.95
3. Are you in ROTC and your whole Squad wants to snack along with you? - Your in luck for just $29.95 you can get the Happy Snacker Box. 2 bags each of 5 customizable options that you can share with your squad. Recommended for up to 5 people. Divide the price and get the above option for 2 people for only $15 each.
4. Want to feed a whole Platoon? - You can with the Smart Snacker option! For only 49.95 you get 4 bags each of your 5 Favorite snacks or let them surprise you. Split the cost 4 ways and each person gets option 2 for less than option one... comes out to just under $12.50 per person. Recommended for a small army AKA 8 to 10 people!

For the last two months we have been running on the happy snacker and this is what we got this month!

I was sadly disappointed by most of the products that we selected for this box.

Honey Mustard Dipping Sticks

Well the Kids Liked Them

These were not even edible in my opinion. I tried them by themselves and I also tried to eat them with ranch (kinda defeating the purpose of healthy snacks) They were a very sharp taste and I did not enjoy them at all.

Mango Orange Chews

I Want a Lifetime Supply

Similar to the welch's fruit snacks you can buy at the grocery store but so much better.

There have been many times where I have gone to walmart on my way home from worked and grabbed a box of fruit snacks and ate all the none grape and raspberry flavors for my dinner.

I wish they sold these in the grocery store I would eat so many of them.

Southern BBQ Sunflower Seeds

My Wife Wants a Lifetime Supply

 

I did not eat any of these as I am not a huge fan of sunflower seeds but my wife loved them and is getting more of them in our next box.

Lemon Tea Biscuits

Probably better with Tea

   

These were not horrible but they were not great. They were really dry but I did like the lemonyish taste if you ate like 6 of them at a time.

Apple Pie Figgy Bars

Is it still American if I say I did not like these?

I don't not like them but compared to the strawberry ones I got for June I was very disappointed. I would have loved them if they had little apple chunks in them and they were a little juicy.

We are possibly upgrading to the Smart Snacker ($50) box next month depending on our finances.

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Have a Happy and Healthy Week



Thomas Gould!

Obesity is a terrorist that does not work alone!

“Obesity is a terrorist that does not work alone!” <- Tweet This! - Don't be a twit

Depression and Obesity work together to take over your life and destroy you! You have to declare war on terror and fight back! The only way to defeat obesity is to lose weight, which is hard when you are depressed; but you can combat depression everyday.

Since I spoke to the recruiters at the beginning of this month I have been depressed and that has set me back. I know I need to lose weight and to reach my goals, but I had convinced myself that my goals were not worth the fight anymore since everything keeps getting in the way. It took me almost a full month to get over this depression.

What makes depression bad

If you Google what is depression you get two definitions

1. Severe despondency and dejection, typically felt over a period of time and accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy
2. The act of lowering something or pressing something down.

So what does all that mean?

While if you translate definition one from geek speak to Standard English it says Severe sadness felt over a period of time and accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy.

That is a little easier to track but still could use some clarification to explain why it is bad. To assist in this clarification I will use the example from my own life

I have been sad over the last 2-3 weeks because I am inadequate (not good enough) for the SEALs and my ability to do what I want seems more and more hopeless.

This is bad because it caused me to not want to do anything and become complacent. I have felt like I can never do anything better than my current job, despite my bosses boss thinking I am good enough for a promotion.

I stopped exercising, I stopped eating right, I stopped trying!

I had fun at my National Guard experience, and despite this I put myself in a state of perpetual failure.

How did I overcome this?

I was talking to my best friend that I have known since the second grade via text message while I was bored at work and his failed attempt to motivate me didn’t quite fail!

I commented to him that I was depressed to which he responded:

“Don't be depressed you can always go for corrections with me.”

I was like:

"How is that supposed to make me depressed? Instead of moving out of Arizona, seeing the world, shooting at evil, and generally just being awesome. You get to stay in Arizona be overheated and an overpaid babysitter.”

He of course took offence and said that I should slit my wrists now if I am going to think like that. Drama Queen!

I told him to think about it:

“If I were to become a corrections officer I could be a corrections officer or a supervisor of correction officers. If I were to go into the military I could be a helicopter mechanic, helicopter pilot, or I could go into some sort of computer field like cryptology or network security. Someday I could get vision correction surgery and become a jet pilot.”

At that point I realized that I was being stupid and that even if I can’t be a SEAL I can still be awesome, that I should not be giving up just because a physical issue pushed me out of my goal.

My Advice

Talk to someone: A true friend will never turn you away!

Anyone: Doctors, Teachers, Counselors, Priests, Mommy, Daddy, Security at Walmart!

Pick up the phone book and dial random numbers till someone is willing to help you if that is what it takes.

Don't give up! DO NOT EAT THAT DOUGHNUT!

Sometimes pushing yourself to be more awesome… to keep striving for the goal even though you cannot obtain it will still keep you motivated and push the depression out.

Keep yourself on track no matter how much you want to give up, cry, or die.

If you give up then the terrorists win!

Do you want to let the terrorists win?

If you said yes to that you are on the wrong blog!

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Have a Happy and Healthy Week!

Thomas Gould!


Images provided by RaccoonGirlDesign

National Guard Weekend

As I write this post I am on a bus on the I17 northbound headed for flagstaff. My friend David and I are going to the national guard drill weekend as guests.

David told me earlier that this weekend is map reading and navigation, at the moment this is an in confirmed rumor. We have pt in the morning. We are sure it is going to be 2 min push ups, 2 min sit ups, and a 2 mile run. All before breakfast. So the faster I run the faster I get to eat. Way to get a fat man to haul ass.

For dinner tonight we had Little Ceasars and got called fat. Go figure!

Three hour drive in a really old school bus style bus with 33 other people and almost no AC and 100 degree temp outside.

WHAT I LEFT MY WATER IN MY BAG ON THE OTHER BUS!

Have a happy and healthy week

Remember to click follow to save a box of chihuahuas.

Thomas Gould