Bulgarian Sand Bag

The exercise in the photo to the left, the one with the hot guy in awesome shape swinging what looks like a purse the size a friend of mine carries, is a great way to shed pounds. If you have a purse like this, and many women do! Use it. Otherwise, get yourself a "Bulgarian Sand Bag."

Also called a "Bulgarian Training Bag,"  these torture, er, training tools were created by Ivan Ivanov, a former Bulgarian Greco-Roman Olympic athlete to train Olympic wrestlers. The originals are made of goat skin, filled with sand and padded with wool. Oh...and the US Navy SEALS use them too, so you know it's a workout.

I know. Plain old dumb bells and weights aren't enough...so I found this while surfing UFO videos on YouTube. Don't ask me how I went from aliens to Bulgarian Sand Bags, but I did.

Okay, new, and looking suspiciously like an awesome shoulder bag, the commercial versions of the Bulgarian Sand Bag cost about $150 to $250. But you can make your own for MUCH MUCH less. No, they won't look as sexy, and you'll get duct tape adhesive all over your hands, but think of all the money you'll save!


I have a video of the the "how-to" make your own below. I'll post a video of me making my own as soon as I can scrounge some inner tubes and dried beans. You can also use wood pellets, or mulch or whatever you can lift. Words cannot describe this thing, although here's a GREAT article by Joe Hashey on what the Bulgarian sand bag is and how to use it. Or scroll down a bit. I embedded Joe's video with Joe demonstrating the homemade bag in use. Seamstress types (male or female), feel free to whip out the sewing machine and encase the rubber in some durable vinyl or canvas if you don't want black marks on everything. Rubber inner tubes tend to leave skid marks. They're not hard to get up, but who needs the hassle?

So why all this weird equipment? Because I'm going to lose weight cheaply and with stuff that most people can either afford, or find or make themselves. A lot of people say you have to have expensive weight sets, or gym memberships...and while those are nice, what if you can't afford them? Joe has, by the way, some great tips on cheap weight equipment...including the sand bag.

And here's the workout. That's Joe in the video. No, I don't know him, but I'm impressed at how he can sling that bag around! If you can keep up with ALL 7 minutes of this, you'll be a limp rag on the floor I'm sure! Okay. Now go to Walmart, buy a truck innertube, some duct tape and zip ties and have a fun afternoon making various weight sand bags!!

My Sink

My real sink. Not a stock photo!

Good News, Bad News
The bad news is, I live in a VERY tiny studio apartment. It has ONE sink, and it's in the bathroom. That means whenever I cook I first wipe everything down with vinegar (kills more germs and bacteria than bleach). The good news is, according to all official reports, bathrooms have fewer germs than kitchens. Whew!

This is what my sink looks like 75% of the day. Honest. The other 25% it is filled with dishes, well, a plastic tub set in the sink that is filled with dishes, pots and pans. To wash my dishes I must either set up a small table to put the clean dishes on, or I have to walk out to the living area and put them on the counter there to dry. I used to set up the table, but steps are steps and with 10 steps (5 to and 5 fro), I can rack up a LOT of steps in a day washing my cereal, salad and snack bowls as well as a variety of plates.

When space is at a premium, it's good to stay on top of things so they don't pile up. The thing was, a year ago I wasn't so good at that.


What A Difference A Coach Makes
I can't remember what month, year I met Lorraine Esposito, but I remember it was online and I stepped in to defend her against a loudmouth, obnoxious, hateful, spiteful bully in a forum we were in. We hit it off online and progressed to phone calls and emails. Then we swapped services, my writing for her coaching. Best deal I ever made.

Lorraine helped me identify what mattered to me. Then she helped me learn self-discipline, not by doing all sorts of things with my business or my life, but with my sink.
"Think of one small, very small thing you'd like to see change in your life," she prompted.
"My sink. I'd like to get up to a clean sink every morning," I said.
And so it began. For a month the only thing I HAD to do at the end of every day was to clean the sink. Even with dishes stacked 2 feet high, it still only took 10-20 minutes. I could commit to that. Or thought I could. There were days I didn't clean the sink. I was, I told myself, just too tired. Most days I FORCED myself to do it, grumbling all the while. But then I got the hang of it and 4 out of 7, then 5 out of 7, then 7 out of 7 days the sink got cleaned. I felt better when I went to bed. I felt better when I got up. I liked how I felt about myself when I accomplished this task.

It took a month or more to get to that point, but as each month goes by it's a habit I continue to enforce. Sure, there are times now and then when I deliberately leave dishes in the sink. But it's a choice and it doesn't usually feel good. It's usually because I've been sick. But recently I've started "cleaning as I go" and that makes it REALLY easy to clean at night. Most nights now I just have a glass, or maybe a bowl if I've had a fruit snack (grapes usually). It's nice!

I tried this sink cleaning exercise years ago with "the Fly Lady." She too encourages people to "just clean the sink" as a way to begin tackling household messes. That didn't work for me because a clean sink wasn't motivation enough for me. What Lorraine did was help me figure out why self-discipline was important to me and link it to why I cleaned the sink.  And that made all the difference. I've done the same thing with my weight loss this time—found a motivation and linked it to logging my meals. When that habit is rolling, then I'll exercise for 5, then 10, then 15 minutes a day.

The Miracle of Minutes
So many people fail at things they try to do, like quitting smoking, losing weight, or exercise, because they try to do it all at once. Then they get overwhelmed and give up. The last time I lost weight I started out with a two-hour a day commitment at the gym. Yeah. That lasted six weeks and then I was just too tired, sick and sore to keep it up. I could have kept it up if I'd known the principle of "baby steps." If it had occurred to me that while I was sick and sore I could just work out 10 minutes a day, but keep up the habit of GOING to the gym. But no, it was ALL or NOTHING. And it ended up being NOTHING. If I couldn't go for two hours, I just stopped going. You know how that ended.

The miracle of minutes is that they're baby steps. You build on them. You do what you can and then push yourself a little more than what you think you can each time. Over time what you're doing GROWS. I could clean my sink, the push was to clean it every day, one day at a time. Exercise, eating right, logging my food...they're all habits I'm developing one step at a time. The only one pushing me is me, but as long as I'm taking BABY STEPS, I can do it. Like this blog. My goal is to write something EVERY DAY.  My goal is to LOG my food every day at Lose It! But I can't do it all at once. I start with ONE thing and focus on creating THAT habit, like logging my food. Then I tie exercising to that, then something else to that. Pretty soon it's all coming together and the weight is coming off!!

Habits to Form
What habits am I working on forming now? Here's my list. But remember, I'm ONLY tackling ONE of these at a time! Those in yellow are the two things I'm consistently doing NOW. The others I do when I think about it, or remember them, (a way to prime the pump!!), but they're next on the list!

• Blogging every day
• Logging my food  every day
• Keeping a "Choices" journal (writing down why I made the choices I did and my justification for each choice so I can identify my process)
• Exercise every day, even if it's just 5 minutes a day some day
• Clean off my desk and write out a "to-do" list each evening of the next day's activities
• Eat ONE frog a day (Not a real frog, a distasteful or difficult task as outlined in Brian Tracy's book, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time)
  

And to think, it all started with cleaning the sink.

No Thank You...

The Joy of "NO."

After years of saying "Yes," to everyone before saying "Yes," to ME, I've started saying, "NO!" and boy, is it pissing people off. And I just don't care any more. I've been doing this off and on, more or less successfully, for about a year or so. This week has been a MORE successfully week.

When people get used to your saying "Yes, yes, yes," to their every little plea or request, they get a little perturbed when they hear "No." At first they'll say, "Oh, are you not feeling well?" or they'll go right to feeling offended and say, "Why

not? It's the "Why not?" people I am really beginning to be annoyed with.

The "Why not?" doesn't come from their curiosity. It comes from their sense of feeling entitled...as tho they are entitled to my time, attention, resources and energy whenever they want it. The thing is, these people are the ones who only call or write when they want something. They NEVER call just to chat, or to see how I'm doing, or to ask if there's anything they can do for ME.

They don't call to say, "Hey, let's have lunch and catch up." They don't call to say, "Haven't heard from you in a while, what's new?"

They call or write to say, "My editor got sick. Can you edit this for me?" (NEVER asking if I have time, or offering to pay.) Or they'll say, "I'm broke this week. We just got back from vacation and I need XYZ, but I have like no money right now. Can you help me out with this project?" Ummmm.....No. I don't want to drop everything to rescue you. You'll have to figure out something else. Not my responsibility.

I'm busy working on ME. I'm eating right, getting enough sleep and working to make money to pay for exercise equipment, a bike, healthy food. I don't want to help you right now. I may not even want to help you  again EVER! You've SPENT all the credits in your social money account.

But it's not JUST those who want to use you that you say "no" to. You can say it to people you really WANT to help and that's okay too. Those are the people who get it, who understand, who respect your time. They're the ones who have several friends they can call on. They like it that you're  taking care of you because when you're satisfied, then you have energy to give!  So, whether the person asking is annoying, or someone you really want to help, but have something you need to do for you first.....

Saying "No," is a GOOD Thing!
People who are used to your being at their beck and call, or that know you can't say "no," are not going to like it when you start focusing on your life, your goals, your needs. That's okay. The ONLY person you're responsible for is YOU. Other adults are responsible for THEIR needs, THEIR emotions, THEIR problems. Healthy adults get that, and they take care of themselves. They aren't offended that you can't chip in, or help. They KNOW they're the ultimate person in charge of them. If you have several friends like this, you're lucky!

When you start losing weight, exercising, and withdrawing from things you used to do, but now have put aside to take care of your needs, your absence will be felt, but not always in the way you'd think, especially if you're the caretaker. People will try to sabotage your weight loss and your exercise because they don't like how it affects THEM. If you were not aware of how they saw you before, this can be a rude awakening for you! And it can be painful too. If this journey has taught me anything, it's that people get rude, ugly, offended and pissy when you start saying "no," and start setting new boundaries. But that's okay. Their offendedness is their problem, not yours. Remember that.

Why I HATE Calorie Count

CALORIE COUNT SUCKS.
I don't mean "counting calories." I'm referring to the weight loss site by the name.

I recently went back to CalorieCount.About.com to see what changes they'd made so I could refer people to them. Not everyone will love Lose It!  and the idea is to get people to find a site that works for them. They used to be CalorieCount and were acquired by About.com is my understanding. BAD MOVE.  GAME OVER CALORIE COUNT.

I saw they had changed their website and now offer a nutritionist's review either weekly, or monthly, for a fee of course.

It SEEMED reasonable...the first 7 days were free, and you could even sign up for free and get your initial report, then discontinue your plan after you got the free report! Well, I NEVER got the free report, so at Day 6 I went to cancel my plan because they didn't deliver what they promised.

And guess what? THERE IS NO "END CONTRACT," or "STOP PLAN" button. THEY HIDE IT SO YOU WON'T FIND IT!! And if you can't find it, you can't quit. After more than an hour of clicking through every link remotely related to stopping my plan I finally, I thought, managed to "UNSUBSCRIBE." I say, "THOUGHT" because there was no confirmation, or email that I had. I blocked the slimy bastards on my credit card so they couldn't charge me anyway, just in case, and I wrote EVERY email address I could find...even using the asterisked "F" bomb in one I was so angry. There is NO phone number on the site (but they may put one up after they read this, sneaky, uncaring people they are) to contact customer service and no one responded to NUMEROUS tweets, or emails, none of them happy tweets.

What I HATE about sites like Calorie Count is that they're only after the consumer dollar. I noticed it's now IMPOSSIBLE to post anything negative on the site. Everything is a check box or radio button. You may THINK you're in a supportive community, and you may find like minds, but you're very tightly controlled.

So, think TWICE before joining Calorie Count and NEVER give them your credit card. Buy a pre-paid debit card for ONE month's service so you don't get dinged and dinged and dinged while you argue with them over cancelling your account. Weight Watchers does this too. You have to call and talk to a sales person who is HIGHLY trained to talk you OUT of leaving their program. The Weight Loss industry PREYS on people trying to lose weight. They only want your money and they know you'll give it to them. SCREW THE WEIGHT LOSS INDUSTRY!! 

I'm sorry to say Lose It! may, in time, be unable to resist the temptation to fleece people, but I'm hoping they prove me wrong.

Kashi Chocolate Squares & Cathe

 I LOVE getting mail. Today I got a new workout DVD from my friend and coach Lorraine Esposito, who is God's gift to personal coaching as well as personal fitness. Some day I'm going to devote and ENTIRE post to how her coaching and her commitment to me, and all her clients, changed my life, because she truly did... and continues to do so to this day...

Anyway, she sent me a new "Dyna-band", which is fitness talk for "big rubber band." It's a bright green (my favorite color) rubber workout band to go with the new copy of the Cathe Travel Fit DVD she also sent me. Also in the mail was a new Kashi treat. Amazing how Kashi managed to also send me a sample "Chocolate Soft-Baked Square"on the same day I got my fitness stuff!!! So of course I opened it. A coupon I would have tossed, but it's hard to pass up free brownies, even if they are supposed to be good for you.

The Kashi square is a whopping 160 calories... more than a traditional brownie that size. But the Kashi is "healthy." It's made of black beans, sweet potato, 7 whole grains and agave.  It packs an amazing 300mg of ALA Omega 3 - the healthy good-for-your-heart stuff. Doesn't look like it does it? lol!!!  Six grams of fat though...It's kind of dry, but it is soft.

You can feel the fiber too. I agree with most of the reviewers. It has a sawdust feel to it. It's subtle, not overwhelming. But I have to admit, it would be hard to substitute this for the real deal made of flour, sugar, dark chocolate and butter.

My approach to FORBIDDEN foods is the "Joy" principle. Take one bite, savor it, then take another and another (if need be) until you're not feeling the "joy" of the food, but are just moving your mouth and consuming food because you can. A lot of times all takes is one bite of something to kill the craving for it...such as brownies. I admit, at first you'll eat the whole pan of brownies in search of the end of the joy...but you really will get to a point where you can take one bite and say, "Wow, that was good," and then move on. This allows you to taste something you think is forbidden, without bingeing on it. Binge eaters may have difficulty with this exercise, but it's one of the few exercises I truly never tire of doing!! So, I took two bites, about 80 calories, of this thing, and decided I would get more joy out of using those 80 calories to add creamer to my coffee. It's up to you how you spend your calories. I like mine liquid...lemonade, soda, creamer in my coffee, sugar in my tea.

But as far as do these taste good? If you're used to a no fat, health food kind of taste, yeah. Apparently microwaving them helps with the taste, but doesn't that kill the healthy aspect of them?

Cathe Video

Okay. Enough of the brownies already. How is the video? Pretty good! I haven't actually DONE it yet, but I watched it to see what I'm in for. I'll start tomorrow. If you want a sample though, here's Cathe doing her thing! The "Lorraine" in the video is not the same person as my friend Lorraine...so don't get confused. My friend Lorraine is more ripped!! See the resistance band? That's what I got! Looks fun huh? This is Cathe's 6 minute YouTube sampler...but I'm looking forward to te entire DVD...I promise, once I do the workout she'll get equal time to the chocolate square!

Strength is MORE Than Just Muscle

Being a strong person means more than just having muscle. It means having strong ethics, boundaries, discipline. None of us have it all 100%.

Right now my strengths lie in how much junk food I can eat in a weekend, or the fact I can spend an entire weekend watching a marathon of UFO and conspiracy videos, the X-Files and old Twilight Zone reruns and barely break a sweat.

My goal however, is to lose another 92 pounds, get my work schedule down to 4 hours a day, not 14, and to have a life. I want to be strong when it comes to matters of conscience as well as being able to carry my own groceries and tote my own barge as we say in the south.

Yes, I would love to have the body of the gal in the photo, but am I strong enough mentally, emotionally and work ethic wise to pull it off? Not now. But by the time I got to the point where I want to be in those areas. I think I'd look just like her...except for the blond hair. I don't want the blond hair...abs? Yes. Quads? Check....Triceps and guns? Totally.

Self Discipline versus Habit

Self Discipline versus Habit. 

I guess you could say Self Discipline IS a Habit. Either way, you need one or the other or BOTH in full or part to exercise and eat right every day.

I was thinking about this while lying in bed this morning. I notice that when we get a new job we may struggle with getting up and getting there on time every day, but the lure of a paycheck and the novelty of eating regularly all get us into a working habit pretty quickly. The consequence of getting fired and living in a cardboard box under the Interstate isn't a pleasant thought. I didn't WANT to get up and start writing/working, but I like eating and not being homeless.

The idea of becoming homeless is so unpleasant it will even keep us in a job we hate, around people we loathe, and a boss we'd like to see get taken out by a bus at rush hour, or by eating a ham sandwich while on the toilet (apologies to Elvis and his fans). (Can you believe there's an entire website devoted to stories about poop? Sorry to digress.)

It's NOT so hard to develop the habit and discipline of working for a living if you truly enjoy eating regularly and sleeping under a roof instead of a cardboard box, but showing up to work every day can  still be a challenge! I have to "show up" at my desk, 15 feet from my bed, every day and THAT'S hard. There's no commute. There's no boss. There's no time clock, I set my own hours. But if I don't show up at some time and do the work, I don't eat...as evidenced by a diet of beans and rice last week.

Apparently the secret to developing self-discipline and habit then is finding a consequence severe enough to motivate you past the discomfort, or is it? The threat of imminent death isn't obviously a concern, as evidence of a nation of fat people and an "obesity epidemic." And, the consequences of appearance don't seem to faze many of us, otherwise there would be no "people of Walmart" website.

Money will almost always motivate people, as evidenced by The Biggest Loser's cash prize of $250,000 for losing the most weight. But most of those folks put the weight back on once they have the money.

So how do people push past the pain, the frustration, the depression, the cravings, the obstacles etc to stay on course? It HAS to be self-discipline. I like what Peter Clemens has to say about self-discipline:


"Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life. Therefore it is self-discipline that drives you to:

• Work on an idea or project after the initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away
• Go to the gym when all you want to do is lie on the couch and watch TV
• Wake early to work on yourself
• Say “no” when tempted to break your diet
• Only check your email a few of times per day at particular times"

Did you catch that? "Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life."

That sums up dieting and exercise to a "T". To lose weight you have to:

• Decide to lose it
• Commit to losing it
• Focus on losing it
• Not get distracted by reasons to change your path to losing it

It's a DECISION for the ultimate good, not the momentary pleasure. Someone recently criticized me for changing my mind about attending some classes. After I talked about signing up and looked forward to attending them all summer, I "suddenly" changed my mind. The last day to sign up for class was this week, and I didn't sign up.

My friend gave me a hard time about it, but I explained, "I knew I couldn't commit to it financially or time wise. I'd start, then stop and never finish it and that would strengthen a habit I have of quitting things." Actually deciding NOT to attend was, for me, making a GREAT decision. Others may see it as "waffling" or failure, but I see it as evidence of my developing self-esteem and self-discipline. Even though I would really have enjoyed taking the class, and probably could have used the chance to get out of my apartment and meet new people, I said, "No," FOR myself. I opted instead to take a few weekend classes, or a one-day retreat intensive thing instead as a reward for my dedication to working, eating and exercising and focusing on what is truly important to me right now—my goals. (Note to self: Other people do NOT have your best interest in mind because they DON'T have the big picture. They like to criticize because it makes them feel superior. Learn to set and enforce boundaries and take care of YOU no matter what others think or say. YOU are the one who will suffer the consequences.)

Part of becoming disciplined is the act of deciding what you truly want versus what just looks and feels good, or what other people think you "should do." For me, making this a goal and CHOOSING whether to eat healthy or not, or exercise or not based on my decisions is a tactic I haven't tried before. It's a CONSCIOUS COMMITMENT. I relied on emotions, moods and feelings in the past. This time, I've made a conscious decision to act regardless of what I feel or think in the moment in order to meet my goal(s). 

The feelings and moods will change, but I'm not relying on those to motivate me. I'm relying on what matters...my goal(s).