Sunday Morning Selfie

Its another cold, wet Sunday morning in Seattle and time once again for me to get on the scale, take a pic and get on the PC to write this Blog and hold myself accountable for the lifestyle choices I make. My name is Joe Bryant and I am a person who has been “obese” by the medical definition most of my Adult life. I woke up New Years Day and made the resolution to change that in 2017. Since we are now two months in I feel good about my progress BUT…. careful about feeling too good about what you have accomplished when there is still a long way to go. (more on that in this blog)

And a quick blog programming note. I will be with my students in New York next Sunday at the IBS Golden Microphone Awards and chances are I will be too busy herding teens to check in. I also seriously doubt there is a scale in my hotel room so SMS will most likely be on hiatus for the first time. I am committed to this process and will make every effort to give weekly updates thru 2017 and potentially longer but some Sundays when I travel, etc. may be selfie and scaleless.

Eat Less Move More

My friend Bob Rivers always joked that we should publish a diet book titled “Eat Less and Move More” then leave all the pages blank. Because the essence of weight loss is captured pretty well in this simple phrase. The fact is if you burn more calories than you consume your excess flab should start to go away.

Thanks to 30/10 Weight Loss For Life in Renton the eating less part has never been easier. In fact I should not even call it eating less, because I get plenty to eat but it is the vegetables and lean protein that my body uses as fuel instead of junk that makes my belly bigger.

But I do have one quick Caloric Confession from last week I must make to myself and to you. And this is the warning I hinted at earlier.

 After dropping four pounds last week and pushing past the 25 pound mark I started to believe my own press clippings so to speak and said.. “damn dude.. you are awesome. I think you have earned some pizza and beer.” Maybe a slice and a Kirkland light would have been at least a neutral option but instead I walked (moving more) up to the Resonate Brewery and had a WHOLE pepperoni pizza and an Atomic Punk IPA. After polishing that off I thought to myself… “you have not been to The Mustard Seed in months. Those guys have a hamburger named after you. If you are going to cheat and fall off the calorie wagon you really owe it to them to drop in”. So I had Nick the friendly bartender serve me up a Space Dust IPA.

This fairly serious deviation from my path kicked me out of fat burn and it was a BIG TIME struggle to get back. However with disciplined following of the 30/10 program the rest of the week I get on the bathroom scale this morning and see a new weight of….. drum roll…. 227 pounds. That’s two pounds less than last Sunday and 29 less than New Years Days so I will take it! But what I wont do is go order a whole pizza to celebrate.

So now that the eating has been covered lets get to the moving more part. I have done two things this week that will virtually guarantee that I am going to stay VERY active this Spring.

I Have Been Hired for my Dream Job

As most of readers know I teach Broadcast Media at Mercer Island High School and this has turned into a very special opportunity for me. I never considered being a teacher and, based on my lack of serious accomplishments as a student, never in my life figured I would be good at anything school related. The jury is still out on how good I am at it as I am still learning the craft but this morning I am thrilled to announce I now have TWO dream jobs!!!

I am now officially the Assistant Coach of the Mercer Island High Girls Varsity Badminton team! I realize that I may not LOOK like a Badminton player but 40 years ago I played for a select club and traveled the Northwest. I was one of the worst players on that club but the skills I acquired made be good enough to be able to run the true athletes in my High School all over the court! I could whip everyone except the teacher and a Swedish exchange student named Nels. He was a TALL dude and had obviously played plenty as a kid as well.

But I have not played a game of true Badminton in a gym since High School so I am a little concerned on how this is going to go. What I do know is this is going to force me to leave my desk and head to the gym for a couple of hours every day. Riding herd on 60 girls chasing birdies all over the place will certainly be burning more calories than grading assignments or programming the radio station.

A revelation I have had about exercise is that if you are having a hard time fitting it into your schedule in an elective manner FORCE it in there by making a crazy commitment like coaching a sport you have not played in 40 years. I will let you know how the new gig goes as practice starts tomorrow. Go Islanders!!

New Toys !

My other plan for putting moving more into my daily life is how I will soon be getting myself to and from my workplace. This week I went into Costco to grab a bag of dog treats and cauliflower rice and left with two band new electric bikes!

While this sounds like an impulse buy I have actually been wanting one of these for years and even attended the Electric Bike Expo last spring. There I rode models in the 3 to 5 k range that were incredible. Since my income has shifted pretty dramatically with my career change I could not justify that kind of cash and looked for used models but never really found anything suitable.

So Monday as I am trying to avoid all those tasty sample ladies (every “BLT”, bites licks and tastes add up you know and I had already blown it this week with pizza and beer), I come across the road show item, Genze Electric Bikes. They are not quite as powerful as the $5,000 bikes but at $1200, are very  well built, get great reviews, and as a person who has drank the Kirkland Kool Aid, I tell myself “If you don’t like it you can always bring it back but you better jump on this deal while it is here”.

 It has been FREEZING and nasty every day since the purchase. But I bought one for myself and my wife Kelli and, based on the couple of short rides we have had, I don’t expect we will be taking them back. It’s a TOTAL BLAST to ride and I look forward to making this my commuter vehicle on warm, dry days.

I have been asked “Why not a regular bike instead of Electric?” Because the community I live in “Newport Hills” got that name for a reason and Mercer Island High sets at the VERY top of the Island high above Lake Washington. My commute is only four miles but there are BIG hills on each end. I will still be pedaling plenty but will need a little boost up these major inclines. As with the new job I will tell you how this works out moving forward.

 The goal of this blog is to have me make decisions that will lead to better health and more years on this planet. Getting hired as Badminton Coach and purchasing a bike are steps in the right direction. But there must be follow thru to actually incorporate these changes and make them a new part of my life. That is where I am thankful for the support the community that has been created around Sunday Morning Selfie offers. Thanks SO MUCH for reading and commenting.

And on a final note… even if you don’t buy a bike at Costco check out the riced cauliflower. This stuff is the 21st Century potato and you can make everything from pizza crust to killer fried rice out of it! (it can be a little on the stinky side though)

How do YOU put moving more into your daily routine? Stairs instead of elevator? Bike to work? Walk to the pizza joint? Feel free to share your tips about this or anything that you think might help others who are in the quest to improve health and fitness in 2017.

And another reminder that I will be herding Radio kids in Manhattan next Sunday so we will check in with you in two weeks!

Cheers, Joe