About Me

  

 

First off, I consider myself the luckiest man alive.  I have a beautiful wife to spend time, and all eternity with, and I have five wonderful little boys.  Over the last 13 years I have been able to enjoy many things, and my family is first on that list.

 

OUR NEWEST ADDITION

Along with the many pluses of raising a family, I found that I spent so much time focusing on their needs, and really ignoring my own.  I don't mean this is a selfish way at all.  For example, my boys are very athletic, and we spend a lot of time making sure they are healthy, getting them into sports, finding good coaches, etc.  They are healthy, strong, and fit little dudes.  The older they get, and the more active they are I came to realize that I was not "healthy, strong, and fit."  Over the last ten years I managed to get out of shape.  Not just a little, but a lot.  I put on about 55 lbs from eating the wrong foods, eating at the wrong time, and not really sticking with any sort of fitness activity.  This really was surprising to me, because prior to raising the kids I was a health nut, fitness freak, and very, very athletic.  It's funny how lifestyles can change things for better, or worse!

My wife is like a natural size 3.  She could eat fast food for a year and really not see a difference in size.  Me...I'm not that lucky.  Once I stopped working out, I started gaining weight.  My wife was always very nice about this.  She would say things like, "Eric, honey, you look okay.  You look like a football player, but honey, you should look like a basketball player."  I love her simple, and supportive comments to drive me forward!  :-)  She knew I was out of shape, but I really hadn't accepted it yet.

After noticing that I am 36 years old, but felt much older, I decided to change.  I decided that I needed to first fix my diet.  I had spent the last several years deciding that I could just run off the weight, and while this did work, it was because of my diet that I would put weight right back on.  No matter what fitness activity I committed to I completely ignored the obvious; until I changed what I was eating nothing would be a long term fix for me.

A number of months ago I decided to really focus on my eating.  I work in small business health insurance sales and I'm sitting at a desk all day.  I work very hard, and sometimes work the entire day without breaks, and frequently skip my lunch.  The problem there is that I would get home and be starving and eat too much, way to late in the day.  Easy fix....smaller meals packed the night before.  This also included getting rid of the junk I just didn't need; energy drinks, soda (pop for all of my mid-west friends,) and just junk food in general.

The second thing I did was to focus on being more active....not just a fitness program to follow, but more active all day.  I got a FitBit Flex, started tracking my steps, and worked on doing more "little" things.   This was incredibly helpful.  Just stepping away from my desk a couple of times a day to log a fifteen minute walk helped my energy levels, and I could burn more calories.

Third, and this was the hardest, I started to keep track of my calories and what I was eating.  This takes a while to get the hang of.  I keep a written journal, because it is easier for me, and then every few days I jump onto MyFitnessPal and I input the foods.  At this point I have a really good idea as to what I have consumed, but it is the habit of doing it that has helped.

The last thing that I did was to decide that I needed to motivate myself with a goal.  I came up with a challenge for myself that I call the Every 90 Day Challenge.  It's simple....the first 90 days was to lose weight.  I completed that!  So far I am down almost 40 lbs.  Nice!  It's amazing how simple changes can make such a big difference.  Now that my weight is down I have been making a list of more challenges.  Every 90 days I will have a stretch goal to be accomplished by the end of the 90 days.  This could include half marathons, full marathons, Tough Mudders, etc.  You get the idea.  This has been very motivating, and very successful.

Over time this blog will evolve, but I appreciate you stopping by.  If you should feel the urge to drop me a line of encouragement I would appreciate it!  Leave a comment on the blog, or contact me at:
eric.n.lawrence@gmail.com