Nutrition is not easy

So I have always been a person who loves to workout. If I don’t have some kind of gym membership, I feel lost and even empty inside to a certain degree.

I spend quite a few free hours in a week at the gym. It’s just what I have always done.

But the toughest side of losing weight for me always involves the food and drinks that go in my body.

I love to eat. I love food that is mostly not good for you. And I ike to indulge in adult beverages once in a while. Energy drinks also have always been a vice.

I have never been typically worried about my weight in past years. I figure it will eventually balance itself out. But my job doesn’t make eating healthier easy.

The scale reading last week though for me was unacceptable. And it’s time for a change.

One thing I love most about this column space is that I’m an open book and have no issues talking about my life to readers in print.

I even had a coach recently ask me if I was still on track with my daily push-ups resolution for 2021. So I know a few folks are reading this space each week.

And yes, the answer is I have done 25 push-ups each day so far this year. My daughter has actually done a great job reminding me. I almost forgot on Saturday. She asked me before I left for the office that night if I had done them yet. I had not. And was happy to be reminded. It was the first time I had gone all day and just simply forgot.

The challenge now is to eat less, consume more fruits and vegetables and stop drinking energy drinks all together. The diet plan I have chosen just doesn’t allow for me to “drink my calories.”

After just one week, I feel better physically. And the scale reflects that the changes and adjustments are working.

I know this journey won’t be perfect. Sometimes I will just crave some Mexican food. Or something from my favorite gas station.

Burning calories most days won’t be an issue for me. And with Newton schools moving to in-person learning five days a week after this month — at least for now — it will allow me to get that fifth workout day in during the week.

What have you done to lose weight or change your life physically? Any diet programs work better for you than others? You don’t have to be an open book like me, but if you want to share, I would be willing to chat about it.

I will give what I am doing a try and see how it goes. So far so good though.

The plan also has been to change up the gym routines. I have hit up YouTube to get new, fresh ideas of what I can do to improve there as well.

I have found in past years that my body does better when it’s pushed, challenged and shocked. So changing the routines and making your body say “what in the world are you doing” is a positive for me.

I have leaned on a lot “HIIT” workouts. For those that don’t know, that means High Intensity Interval Training.

Jumping jacks, jumping rope and 30-40 minutes of walking-running combinations on the treadmill are where I am at right now. I am still charting my mileage on the treadmill after each workout. I want to see how many miles I put in this year.

And one of the staff members at the gym suggested to increase the daily push-up number each month.

The 25 per day that I am doing is getting easier by the day. So maybe I will improve the number by five each month. It’s those subtle changes that could make all the difference in the end results.

Contact Troy Hyde at thyde@shawmedia.com