Have An Impossible Dream

Like John Richardson, I have dreamed about being about being able to fly. No surprise then that one of my favorite books many years ago was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The author, Richard Bach, wrote that "Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again." That could have described me for too many years. Someday I will share some of those details, but, for now, I agree with blogger John.

Everyone should Have An Impossible Dream.

It's never too late to change your life. It's never too late to try something new. It's never too late to do, well, anything you can dream of. It might be harder to accomplish the longer you wait, but it will only be impossible if you don't try.

When I weighed 367 pounds I was completely out of balance in all kinds of ways. Life was not much fun, and I felt trapped with no hope. Today I am in the best shape since high school at 208 pounds. Today anything seems possible. All it took was a DECISION, followed by daily ACTION and sharing the goal with friends who would hold me ACCOUNTABLE.

Decision
The first thing I had to do was decide that I really wanted to look like the me in an old photo holding my then 1 year old daughter. My estimate was that I was might have weight 225 pounds, so I set that as my 18 month goal. It was October 1, 2010.

Action
Setting that goal was not enough. Achieving any goal requires daily steps toward it. David Allen would call those the "next actions." For me the next action would be to eat breakfast the next morning. And to eat lunch. And then have a sensible dinner. And go for a walk. That may seem like an odd goal, but I was fat because I was not eating right; hardly ever ate breakfast or lunch.  And please note that I didn't set calorie goals or exercise goals. For goodness sake, I didn't have any idea 21 months ago how many calories I should net each day. I just knew that I needed to eat right and exercise. Decision must be followed by action. My next action was to eat breakfast.

Accoutability
My first accountability partner was TLOML. I told Cheryl what I wanted to do and asked that she remind me to eat breakfast each day and pack a lunch and some small snacks. The next morning I ate breakfast, headed to work, and received a text from Cheryl - "did you eat breakfast?" Later I would add Marshall and Wayne and then my friends on MyFitnessPal. Earlier this year I asked you join my group of accountability partners by focusing this blog on my journey to a new life.

Results
The dream seemed impossible on October 1st, 2010. My goal was to lose 142 pounds in 15 months. Guess what! It took only 11 months to hit that goal. When the fifteen months was up I had lost 152 pounds, and have since lost ten more. My pant size went from size 60 to size 34. I ran a 5K one year after making the decision to look good again.

Do you have a dream? If not, why not? If you do, do you need an accountability partner?

Please use the comment button to share your success, your struggles or any other thought you have about being a dreamer!

Be sure to eat some breakfast, and take Clif Bar with you.

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Daily Goal: A Second Shower

Tropical Storm Debbie might over in the Gulf, but it's outer bands have been dropping lots of rain here in South Florida. Lots of rain. So much that my daily workout routine has been disrupted a little bit. But there are always ways to get in some cardio and some exercise. The Journey Gym is under the patio roof. Swimming in light rain is still good; I mean after all, when you're swimming laps what difference does it make if it's raining? And there's the Elliptical machine. Each of them took turns helping with the daily workout over the last several days, but none of them were getting the grass mowed, so the lawn was starting to look a little shaggy. Finally this evening was an opportunity to fire up the lawn mower and cut the grass and cut some carbs. How many calories can I burn today? Strap on the blue tooth heart rate monitor, buckle the Timex Ironman watch to my wrist and get after it. Quickly - it likes its going to rain again and soon.

Thirty-six minutes later I put the mower away. As I head for the shower, I glance at the watch which says I have burned 323 calories. Haven't had dinner yet, but Cheryl will appreciate my presence a little more if I shower first. And then it comes to me - a daily goal for fitness.

Do something every day that requires a second daily shower.

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest.

Can You Lose Weight Without Knowing Your BMR?

Of course you can! I did. For a while that is. In fact, for the first two or three weeks on my journey to losing 156 pounds, I didn't even count calories. Oh, sure, I did do some rough calculations of the likely amount for each meal by reading the package labels, or doing a quick Internet search for nutrition information. I learned that most bread slices are about 100 calories, that a large egg is about 70, and so on. So when I say that I just guessed at how much was the right amount of food to eat it was at least an educated guess. True story!

Now I am not suggesting that you take the same approach because I don't know anything about your BMR. When I started my journey I just wanted to look like the guy in the blue shirt holding his second daughter; that was more than 20 years ago when Falon was just over a year old. My best guess is that I weighed 225 pounds back then, and the day I set the goal I was at 367 pounds. My dream became losing  142 pounds by the end of 2011. It was time to change something and eat right and start exercising is the only thing I could think of. I did not know my BMR or that such a term existed.

If you have been following our story you know that I tracked my weight and other measurements using Google Docs. Then I discovered MyFitnessPal.Com while looking for nutrition information on something I wanted to eat. When I discovered there was an app for my phone it became easy to "count calories" by logging everything I ate. And it has tools to help set goals which all starts with knowing your BMR - basal metabolic rate. Here is what I read on their BMR page.


BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating. Your BMR does not include the calories you burn from normal daily activities or exercise. Our calculator uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equations to estimate BMR which is believed to be more accurate than the more commonly used Harris-Benedict equation.


Eighteen months ago my BMR was 2,903 calories per day. If I wanted to stay fat at 367 pounds and not exercise then I needed to eat that much. And I did and more. Today my BMR is 1,850. And because I am more active today, I eat about 2,300 calories. How does this help you? Why did I tell this story? Because when you are setting goals, you need to know what you are doing now so that you can change what you do tomorrow. 

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest. Calculate your BMR. Set a goal.(If you really want to understand BMR, try this Wikipedia article.)

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The Scales Don't Tell The Whole Story

Last week I gained weight. Is that a big deal? No. Why? Because I know the rest of the story. I know that there are other things to measure besides weight. Yes, it is important to measure weight. You need to have a regular weigh-in each week. And you need to write it down. For example, you can find my weight measurements on MyFitnessPal.com/docdevore and also at Bodybuilding.com. When I first started this journey in October of 2010, I was only tracking my weight. Within a few weeks I read Tim Ferris' book, The Four Hour Body, and realized I needed to measure even more. Above you can see a snippet from the spreadsheet I keep on Google Docs. Look closely and you will see why I am not concerned that I gained some weight in the last 10 days. Actually, I am somewhat pleased because I now know that the JourneyGym 70 Day Challenge is paying off with more muscle mass. Muscle weighs more which is shown by the fact that in the three weeks between the last two complete body measurements, my overall stats did not increase significantly. My goal seems realistic and you are part of the success. You are  The Missing Letter in SMART Goals - accountability. If you need help setting goals, read Timo Kiander's article. For a copy of Tim's book, visit our sponsor at Buy.Com by clicking this link.

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BTW, I am still looking for some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com. Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.

Me, the week before he decided to do something about losing weight

Recently a friend, and former co-worker, sent me this photo. She had heard that I was looking for any picture or artifact that could tell the story of going from fat to fit. Or, any of the other thousand stories that we all have to tell. Thanks to Julie you can see what I looked like the week before deciding to finally do something. We were in the LA area for a convention and took our only free afternoon to walk both sides of Hollywood Boulevard. I took her picture; she took mine. The next week I asked Cheryl to help me lose weight by at least eating better. Starting with a sensible breakfast, packing a lunch, and laying off the chips and other snacks at night. That's all it takes to lose weight. Obey rule #1. But to get fit you also have to act on rule #2 - exercise. Let's tell that story another day.

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OH, and if you have some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com.  Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.
Because you have your fun assignments for the week, I am going dance some swing around the pool listening to some great steel guitar and thinking about all those great memories we have shared. (Send that email.)

photos@blogs.docdevore.com

Be sure to get some breakfast, and take Clif Bar with you.
The Disclaimers, Shameless and Legal Stuff

You may also want to get useful tips on losing weight and exercising at my blog at MyFitnessPal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/docdevore) or Daily Stories about how to lose weight by only learning two rules - eat right and exercise - then visit Doc's blog over at docdevore.blogspot.com. CYA! (wear sunscreen :)

Okay, the legal stuff. Listen up.

I am not a doctor. I am not a certified trainer. I am not a professional body builder. I m in better shape and I do know a lot of stuff that those experts told me, but I don't have a paper that says so, and they haven't told me everything they know yet. Or as Uncle Buck said: "You should always consult a professional, like your doctor, before you begin any weight loss program, and you should ask an expert before you try some of the foods and exercise that Cheryl and Doc use." In other words, this blog contains my opinion on what might work and is for folks who are serious about changing their life. It should not be construed as anything more than what I found on my journey, and how I learned to use it. So you have now been warned: Do attempt the journey on your own without consulting a professional or gaining parental approval. And by the way, there is some other legal stuff on this page about who owns the trademarks and photos and copyright stuff. Most of what I have is not original, but the way I package it up IS, so be sure to read ALL of my rules. Here they are: All postings on my blogs are the opinions or thoughts by Floyd V. Doc DeVore and are protected by a Creative Commons license; all photos are the exclusive copyrighted property of Doc and any reuse, posting or alteration must be approved or licensed in a manner consistent with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at plus.google.com/108251433034379163350/aboutt. In other words, if you want to use, just ask me.

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(wear sunscreen :

An Old Pro with a Newbie Attitude

Today I start blogging in parallel. Same story both places, just different words. Enjoy!

Click this link to read what I shared with friends over at MyFitnessPal.com.

Doc's Blog - at MyFitnessPal.com

Leave your comments here, there or nowhere. Email me, call me, or not.

You'll find links for each action to the right or below this post.

ANY comment welcome! Trust me!


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PS: Trust me on the sun screen.

2011 - A Journey to a New Life

Doc Before and After: 2009 and three weeks ago in December, 2012

There will be more in this series, which will be apparent as 2012 moves toward yet another year. The journey has many stories, but one, of which I am second most fond, is losing 153 pounds. Yes, that is me on the left, taken in May of 2008 in Tampa, Florida. Cheryl and I lived in St. Louis at the time, and I was in complete denial about many things. One day my bride said something that totally awakened me to reality. That's what usually has to happen, because, despite my public persona, I am just an average guy. Not super smart. Not overly handsome. Not overly ugly. Pretty smart, but I never think of myself as the smartest guy in the room. Big ego? Yes! But, I never told anyone, because I did not (at the time) really understand the true meaning of humble.

On that day that started this trip to a healthy (and longer) life, my wife might as well have taken a dagger and stabbed me in the heart. But being an optimistic person, I said, "well, now what Doc?"

The 'what' is that I decided to change. Everything. I had some unexpected help making that easier to accomplish; however, I knew that I could trust God to work things out. He did (and that's a whole different series that will be forthcoming when I talk about the most personal, intimate, powerful, worshipful encounter ever experienced by this "old Wyoming cowboy."

For now, let me just say that in addition to the goal I set for weight loss, I also set some goals for what I would do after I reached the next starting line. For James Taylor, who commented on yesterday's post, let me just add that I promise to answer your question. Keep watching here for how I did it, and what some of those other goals are, one of which you are particpating in as you read this. But, if you can't wait, hit the email link over there on the side somewhere, and I'll give you the Cliff Notes summary immediately. For the real good stuff, please be patient. As Hercule Poirot would say - "All will be revealed."

Want a hint about the plan that is to be revealed? 2012 will be the worst year of the rest of your life.

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