The Final Weigh In

Well its over. Sorta, kinda over. The 60 day challenge has been completed and my final weigh in was on Tuesday. I was a bit nervous getting onto the scale. Had I plateau'd yet or would my progress continue. My wife has been going through some medical issues and that made eating on my regular routine impossible. Can you still lose weight without maintaining the same exercise and eating regimen? Well I'm happy to say yes, yes you can. I was down another 3 lbs. My total weightloss for the 60 days was just slightly more than 25lbs. It was actually a lot more than I thought it would be. If I were just dieting alone, my guess is that I would have lost probably only half that weight, but I'm not going to try and find out. Not exercising is partly the reason I ended up in such a mess to begin with. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to exercise. You don't need a gym or equipment either. If you are fat like me, your body becomes your equipment its that simple. All you have to do are the big 3 exercises. Pushups, squats and crunches. If you are only going to do one exercise, it has to be the pushup. I venture to say that most people do them wrong. I used to think oh if you put your arms out wider, you don't have to down as far and it will be easier. Its not. Its much easier for you to get in the plank position with your arms shoulder width apart. Keep your stomach tight, how tight. Imagine some is going to kick you in the stomach, brace it like you are about to be blasted. Keep your head up. Then lower yourself down to the ground until your chest almost touches, then push yourself up. That's one rep. Here is your challenge. It is a great one, given to me by Joshu Stephen Regman. He's an amateur kickboxing and Muay Thai champion. Here is his challenge. Do as many pushups as you can in one minute. The first time I did this, I could muster up about 8. After your minute has past, keep your position and hold for 1 minute rest. Then do half the amount you just did. The quicker you do them the more rest you get. When you complete your set, the rest of the minute you get to rest. When the new minute starts you do your next set. Do that for a total of 10 minutes, not including the initial set. You'll find yourself after a few weeks getting stronger and stronger. Joshu Regman does no weight training and I can tell you, that I hope to look as good as he does. Never get down on yourself. The first time I started doing pushups the right way, I could do maybe four or five before I gave out. Now I can 50-60 and pushing myself toward doing 100. Keep at it and it will get easier. There are modifications to the pushup, which you can look up online. There isn't much difference between the regular and modified pushup in terms of muscle usage, so its a good place to start. Keeping the plank position really helps the core. To fuel up for this endeavor, here is one of my favorite breakfasts. This can be done in a slowcooker, so its ready when you wake up.

Slow cooker Oatmeal

This is a great recipe because it doesn't require additional sweetner to be added.

Ingredients:
2 cups steel cut oats or old fashioned oats (NOT QUICK COOKING)
6 cups water
a dash of salt (avoid tablesalt, use kosher or sea)
1/2 cup - 1 cup Assorted dried fruit - I love diced apricots, cranberries, cherries, dates etc. Whatever you like in a dried fruit add it in.

Okay so here is the tricky part. Combine everything in a slow cooker 4 quart size. If yours is larger you may want to add additional oats and water (3 to 1 ratio water to oats). Set on low heat for 5-6 hours. On high will cook in 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Serve warm. If its not sweet enough with the dried fruit add a scant teaspoon of brown sugar to the finished bowl. Enjoy.