Success is NOT a Straight Line

And so begins week 15 of my switch to a plant based diet and a healthier lifestyle.  For the first time since starting this journey to better health, my weight flatlined this week and the needle on the scale did not move.  I’m not really sure why as I did not over eat.  I actually spent most of the week feeling unsatisfied and not full which is a discouraging thing when you trying to lose weight.  The body is smart and when it feels like this, it believes there is a shortage of food and tries its best to hang on to what you have.  It wasn’t until last night when I ate stuffed peppers that I actually felt fully content afterwards.  This was a heavier meal than I typically like to eat prior to the day of a weigh in.

Last week, I passed up the most tempting chocolate mousse cake at work along with bagels and cream cheese.  I visited my grandparents and passed up wonderful italian bread, prosciutto (which I love) and hard provolone cheese.  I hit the weights, I stayed active.  I  really stuck to eating mostly veggies and legumes. I did mostly  everything right and at the end of the week, I still came up short.  I can live with it though.

The things we most want in life, shouldn’t come easy.  As much as we hate it to be, getting there should be difficult.  Achieving what we desire should be a struggle so that when we finally have what we want in our grasp, we can truly appreciate, cherish and savor it. – for the rest of our lives.

I don’t feel depressed.  I feel a little angry.  I definitely feel inspired.  I feel ready to kick it up a notch and get what is mine.

Tasting the Agony of Defeat

So the local blog awards were held last night and johnnysized.com succumbed to the very stiff competition. With just three months of this page being in existence, I think it went as well as could be expected. The fact that it was nominated in three categories made me proud. But victory is so sweet and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to win. It does motivate me to work harder for next time. Things that we truly want should not come easy so that when we obtain them, we really savor it and appreciate it. I was very glad to see some of my friends win. Both those that did and didn’t are passionate about their craft and are inspirations to me. I made a few new friends as well and I look forward to reading their work.

So I came back home a beaten man. What to do? Bag of potato chips? Pint of ice cream? No!

Curls!

In a suit and tie no less – because one should be professional at all times. I curled until I could curl no more.
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As some of you may know, I dabble in the arts. Being of Italian descent, I thought it would be fun to audition for a local series about “the mob” (more info coming in the next several weeks when I’m allowed to discuss it). Ironically I was offered a part as a Russian Mob enforcer. The problem here is two-fold. I need to figure out a Russian accent pretty quickly. That is doable. The other issue is that the headshot I used to get the part is a bit dated. I weighed at least 60 pounds more at the time. But now, I’m the incredible shrinking man. So hitting the weights hard and regularly is imperative. I need to be lean, mean and hulking!

Da svidaniya comrades!
For now,
Johnny