21 Day Mind Mastery Weight Loss Program

A few weeks ago I signed up for an online seminar/course called The 21-Day Master Weight Loss Program.  I had seen a post about it on Facebook a few months ago and then again another post a few weeks ago.  The course is normally $97 but the FB ad said you could get it for $49.  I looked at the two free introductory videos and downloaded the first two free chapters of the author’s Kindle book and was interested. 

While my weight is not a major problem, it is higher than I would like.  More troubling, I don’t find that counting my calories or my fat calories or working out more or harder or easier seem to have much effect on my weight.  I seem to be at a plateau for the past few years in spite of eating generally healthy and running, biking, stretching, doing core, etc.  A few years ago I went to see a Homeopath to work on that issue.  We discovered that I had a gluten insensitivity if not allergy and I’ve cut my gluten consumption almost completely.  While you sometimes hear anecdotal evidence about cutting gluten and losing weight, that hasn’t been my experience.  It has helped my allergies and digestion but doesn’t seem to have affected my weight. 

When I mentioned the course to ChocolateWife she said that if it spoke to me I should take the course.   The next day when I logged in to my e-mail I had an e-mail from the online hosting company saying that since I had viewed but not purchased the course, here was a code for 30% off.  A few hours later I got a here is a code for 50% off.  So I spent $48 to start the course. 

I’m now on day 12 and quite intrigued with where it is going.  I believe that the course will end up being about sort of rewiring my brain to have control over different things including my weight.  I’m not sure how that will happen but I’m open to it and looking forward to it.  In terms of mechanics the course is comprised of:

·         A daily video to watch from the Clinical Psychologist – Dr. Sean Sullivan.  These are about 5 minutes long and very encouraging.  He is quite charismatic and relates his personal experience in life and how it relates to the challenge for the day.

·         You do 20 minutes of exercise, any exercise you choose.

·         Immediately following the exercise, you do a scripted 20 minute walking meditation.  It’s basically a mediation progressing through body awareness, sound focus, breath awareness, and observation of internal thoughts.

·         Then you do a journaling/challenge.  It differs daily and is what takes you toward the main objective of the course.  This what I find the hardest as I find myself actually confronting painful memories and trends in my life. 

The course is challenging in that there is no day off.  I have not managed to run all the steps together that often.  Frequently I do the first 3 together but then do the last one at home that evening.  It’s not ideal but I believe I am making progress. 

More to come later. 

Exercise 3/11 - 3/17

I had a much better workout week this past week.  Nothing was particularly intense but it was consistent.

Monday - I'm on a new program (I'll write an entire post about it this week) that includes 20 minutes of exercise followed immediately by a 20 minute walking meditation.  Most days I've done the 20 minutes as walking.  So this was 40 minutes, 2 miles approximately.
Tuesday - Ok, the picture is showing up weird.  Really it should only show the 3.3 miles for my lunch walk which includes 40 minutes and then the 20 minute walking meditation.  For some reason the entry I made originally for Monday is showing on Tuesday and I can't find it to delete it.
Wednesday - 2 miles.  The program of walking and walking meditation.
Thursday - 3.2 miles in 1 hour.  Walking and then the meditation. I also made my first blood platelet donation of the year and actually did a triple. I knew that there were triples but have never been asked/allowed to do one before. The time was 96 minutes for the donation but I figure once I'm there, I might as well do as much as I can. 
Friday - The day was going to be difficult so I took an hour off work to come home early and ride my bike.  I rode about 11.5 miles in under an hour. Then jumped off the bike to do the walking meditation ritual for 20 minutes.
Saturday - I did my 40 minutes walking 2 miles including the meditation ritual. Then later we met up with my sister's family at Monument Hill State Park. We had a picnic and a little hike and then threw around the football.
Sunday - I rode my bike but only about 7.5 miles.  During the ride, I noticed that the air was low in both tires. In the course of trying to air up the tire, I broke off the stem which destroys the tube and lets all the air out.  The family came and picked me up.  Later I did my walk and walking meditation.  Also later the entire family went to play tennis.  I literally had not touched a tennis racket in 10-11 years and was pleasantly surprised at my ability to hit the ball and get it over the net. 

No running but I think I'm ok with that for now.

Livestrong Thank You Hats

While my performance in the Livestrong Half-Marathon was subpar (as expected), I out raised my previous totals for Livestrong.  I raised nearly $1900 this year which is about $400 more than last year and almost $1000 more than my first year running for Livestrong. 

 

When I started I had the idea of raising money for hats I would make with the suggested donation being $20 a hat.  I posted on both Etsy and a blog page (after getting permission from Livestrong and Etsy) but got no takers that way.  When I posted on FB, and mentioned the hats sometimes people would post and say that they wanted one. 

 

Mostly though, I just sent people a thank you hat or 2 or 3 after they made a donation.  After getting the donation I would send an e-mail and ask color preferences or just used my judgement. At first I stuck to Livestrong colors but quickly did whatever color people asked for.  And I really liked the black hats with Rainbow trim. 

 

Pictured here are some of the hats I made and sent out to say thank you to all my wonderful donors (and one happy recipient)! 

 

 

Training Report 03/04 - 03/10

Yes. There are actually some green lines on last week's picture.

Monday - 1.6 miles. The family took a nice walk after I got home from work.  We took both puppies. I love the way the kids alternate between running ahead and complaining that they are so tired and exhausted that they can't possibly take another step. 
Tuesday - 3.5 miles in 1:03 walk.  This was to be the first run day in over a month.  Yeah... until I pulled my clothes out of my bag and realized I had no running bra. I took a nice walk to the park instead and found a $5 on the way back to the office.
Thursday - 2.6 miles in 35 minutes. First run in over a month.  I have lost a lot of cardio fitness with the time off and the cough/cold but it felt good to do at all.  I did a 1:00/1:00 and walked 5 minutes before and 15 after. 
Saturday - 2.0 in 40 minutes Walk. More on this later.
Saturday - 10.5 miles in 58 minutes.  I took an easy bike ride which included stops at two different Redboxes to get Wreck-it-Ralph and Twilight. Wreck it was awesome and Twilight was terrible even if you grade it on a curve and consider that it was a Twilight movie.
Sunday - 3.2 miles in 60 minutes.  Lovely walk and it had rained to very little pollen in the air.