This is me when I was down to 232 lbs.
and a lot more active.
I've never been fond of exercise for the sake of it. I know it bears many fruits. It's great for you to stay lean or built, depending on what you want to do. But to me it's tedious and not my bowl of menudo. I get bored easily. Biking is the one thing that I really enjoy when I get a chance every once in a long while. Being a single father of two little boys is tough stuff. There is very little time left for personal hobbies. Especially when these hobbies involve you having to make arrangements for someone to take your kids for a couple of hours. I much rather wait and use those occasions for matters that can not be put off, like working after hours or going to the dentist (my premolar tooth on the right upper side is killing me right now).
My guess is that most people abhor exercise. Even though you see gyms full of people going at it, and gyms popping up all over the place in every corner, still, the majority of people much rather chill and down some chicken wings with a couple of cold ones than hit the treadmill. It's understandable. It's not natural to get on these machines and walk and walk, and end up absolutely nowhere when you are done. That's right, exercise machines are unnatural and arbitrary. So I've picked up on certain tips on how to go about achieving the effects of exercise without having to drag yourself to a gym, or step outside your everyday routine.
First off, stop fighting for the parking spot closest to your building where you work. South Texas College people, you know I'm talking about you. I work there and I used to do the same thing as everyone else. You get to the parking lot. It's packed like there's a free concert or something. Instead of driving on further, way down the lot or across the street to another lot, you instead opt to circle around over and over like a great white shark looking for victims to bite. You waste more time doing this than actually parking farther from your respective building. Not only that, but the farther away you park, the more you have to walk to get there. And if you are late, the faster you have to walk there as well. Think about the benefits of this self-imposed "inconvenience". Every step counts. And when you get to your building, TAKE THE STAIRS, PEOPLE! You might think not, but just these two changes can make a tremendous difference on your health and weight.
Secondly, whatever you are doing, whether you are washing dishes, organizing your Cd's, watching the tube or cooking dinner, don't just stand there or sit there. Move! Take on a rhythm. Or if you got no rhythm, then start jogging in place. The point is don't totally waste your potential time for some-any-kind of exercise just because you are "busy" and can't make the time to "exercise". Exercise is something that we do when ever we get our bodies in motion. It's not like saying, "Oh, I can't light those candles because I have no matches or a lighter." If you are fully, or even partially, able to move your body, that is all you need to burn calories. Unless the goal is to bulk up muscle, then you would need more intense "workout". But even then it does not mean that you have to put your feet inside a gym. Chopping wood, lifting heavy objects repeatedly, like broken branches, old batteries, etcetera, will yield the same results. Just get imaginative. If you want to get all Hercules and stuff, well then yeah, maybe you should invest in a gym membership or home equipment.
Lastly, I once read somewhere the general rules for ensuring the maximum calorie burning at every chance you get. The rule goes:
If you are lying down, sit up.
If you are sitting up, stand up.
If you are standing up, don't just stand there, move.
If you are moving and can walk, then take a stroll.
If you are walking, start jogging.
If you are jogging, run.
I don't know how far you could actually take this line of scenarios. I'm not even sure that the rule went exactly like this. But you get what I'm saying. The point is to keep on moving. Every day at every hour in every situation that you can squeeze in an extra demand on your body to exert itself and expend energy, you are doing yourself a favor. This, combined with a proper diet and the occasional meal substitution as I mentioned yesterday, will have you melting away the pounds little by little at first, and then eventually you are going to have so much energy that you will actually WANT to join a gym or offer the neighbor to mow down his jungle-looking grass and cut down all the trees suffocating his house to release all that new found extra energy.
UPDATE!
Today I ate like a pig! Okay, I exaggerate. I had three fried, sunny side up eggs, five long strips of bacon, thirteen stir fried mini-carrots, and two mozzarella cheese sticks with a 12 oz. cup of orange juice for breakfast. For brunch, I had 1 1/2 cups of old fashioned oatmeal with 1/3 cup of milk, six blue berries and a tablespoon of real butter. I washed that baby down with black coffee sweetened with stevia. For lunch, I had a handful of peanuts and cashews, a banana, and a bottled water. For late afternoon snack, I ate four strips of dried pork jerky, three mozzarella sticks and a few sips of diet iced tea. I think I ate more than usual, but I also parked far from my building, which means that my energy needs were more demanding today. Parking way out of the way forced me to have to walk for the equivalent of about thirty minutes; starting from my car to the building, then back to my car for lunch, then back to the building, then back again to my car at quitting time. Now that's exercise I can get with.
Come back sometime. I will be sharing some pretty embarrassing pictures pretty soon. You'll be quite amused as I parade my chubby childhood here for ratings! :p
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