Top of the World Ma!

(Or at least the top of the wall)

You can do lots of amazing things, once the weight comes off. This is something that I never could really do when I was younger, because frankly, I was too big. My arms were never strong enough to hold my weight.

Once I lost 100 lbs in college, I could probably have done this. I just never tried. So recently when my daughters wanted to climb the wall at the Ellicott City, MD YMCA, I said I'm going to climb too. This is the second time I tried it. The first time, I only made it a little bit further than the top picture. On this day..September 2, 2008, I made it to the top!! Whoohoo!

Training

When I tried the first time my triceps began to hurt and I noticed my fingers were a little stiff. So, after that first time, which was about a month ago, I began doing push-ups with my fingers instead of my hands. I also began doing push-ups with my hands together in the shape of a diamond. The first type of push-ups strengthened my fingers.. The second type strengthened my triceps. My training paid off and I made it to the top.

Next up is working on hanging with each arm individually, so I can do the Rings ala American Gladiator style. By the way, I want to go on that show, that is why I am doing these types of activities. I was never in shape, the first time the show came on. Now I will be ready. Bring it on Gladiators..Bring It On!!

A Sample of What I've Been Eating

I am being quite honest with what I have been eating. So I wanted to post this out there for others to see. I exported this from the site I use to track my daily food and exercise. http://www.thedailyplate.com/ Here is what I ate in the last 30 days. As you will see, most days are good and within my calorie range 1500-1800 calories per day...And others are not so good. But I don't sweat the bad days because I still want to live my life and have most days be very healthy days. If I eat more on holidays or vacations or Training class days (where I go out to eat most of the days I am in training) I can live with it, because I continue to exercise. On a monthly basis I believe I am still within my target goal of an average of 1500-1800 calories per day. So here goes http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/diary/who/dwinston91/ You can see what I ate for the month of June or any other past months. Check it out.

Darrell

Not Cheating Just Eating...

Here I am on February 27, 2008 eating Ice Cream and Apple Pie (Oh and by the way, at this point I have lost about 59 pounds). My friends were pointing at me and said that I was cheating on my diet. They even posted that as the caption for the picture. I had to correct them and let them know that I wasn't cheating..I was just eating.

You see, by making note of everything I eat and knowing how many calories are in each, I can eat whatever I want...not unlimited amounts of it however, but whatever. I prefer it this way. There are some days and holidays that I eat more than I do on regular days. And when I was on vacation in Florida I didn't even keep track of everything. The main point is that I've incorporated keeping track of what I eat into my lifestyle, in addition to daily exercise; which I didn't do very much of before.

As long as on a daily basis, I enter what I've eaten, I know what I have to do later on, to account for the additional or lesser amounts of calories. Believe it or not, there are some days where I have to eat more, because I have burned a whole lot of calories exercising and doing strenuous activities, and I am well below my daily target goal of 1500 to 1800 calories a day. The main thing...and I was thinking about this yesterday... is being honest with yourself, even when you don't want to be, because you know you've eaten more than you normally do. But by being honest with yourself and keeping track of what you've eaten, you can know what to do later to balance it out.

Remember its not cheating, its just eating. And like they used to say on G.I. Joe "Knowing is half the battle!"