A letter!

Anonymous posted this:
I've just stumbled across your blog. How often are you getting weighed? How did you get started with regards to your will-power? Any strategies that worked? I crave sugar... cannot seem to get through the day without it.

Well Anonymous, those are great questions. I'm no expert, but here are my answers. I weigh myself officially once a week. However, I do jump on the scale pretty frequently just to check in. And really, I find that the scale isn't an accurate measure of success. Because I might have busted my ass the week before and eaten almost nothing and GAINED weight. That would be because I'm converting flab to muscle.

A better indicator of success would be my jeans that are normally just a hair tight suddenly being not too tight. Or one of my t-shirts flapping around more than normal.

Does that make sense? The scale is nice, but not totally accurate.

Will-power? Shit, I haven't figured that one out yet. Luckily (depending on how you look at it), I tend to have an obsessive personality; when I get into something, I get into it full bore, no restraint. If I decide to collect rare stamps tomorrow, I'm going to have the best rare stamp collection around. As far as weight loss and diet, I HAVE to do this. And I beat myself up pretty bad when I "break" the diet or whatever.

Everything that I've read says to make small adjustments. Find ways to feed your sweet tooth in other ways. The peanut butter and graham cracker snack helps me because it is sweet and salty and crunchy. It might be on the higher calorie end, but it has protein and is still better for me than a Snickers. Fiber One bars actually taste pretty good and they're not that bad for you either. As long as you're not pounding the whole box in a day.

I'm not an expert. I'm just a dude trying his best to be healthy. I hope that this helps. It is very easy for me to say, "This is what you should do," but that doesn't mean I have it all figured out. Or that I do it. The best that I can tell you is to stick with it. Don't get discouraged. If it was easy, we would all have six pack abs and giant muscles (or, if you're a girl, you'd all look like supermodels). But it isn't easy. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor, just as everyone has done for me.

Thanks for reading. Keep reading. Keep posting. Let me know how it goes. Good luck.

I'll see everyone later.