GS Blog

Time is something many people take for granted.  I’m surprised when I see people wasting their time, doing nothing or doing things that have no real value.  No real value meaning not being productive.  And I’m not pointing fingers.  I find myself many times doing stupid things that I know I shouldn’t be spending my time on.  But instead of playing video games and watching Netflix, shouldn’t we be spending more time on things that help “improve” us or make us better?  I mean, if time is so valuable, shouldn’t we being doing things that equate to that “high” value?  Why don’t we take it seriously and why don’t we respect it?  Once time is gone, it’s gone forever, we can never get it back.

Throughout the day, I will catch myself not making good use of my time.  Sometimes I’ll justify by making excuses like, “I need to learn about this” or “This is important” or “I just need a little break.”  But in reality, is what I’m doing really that important?  Probably not.

Victor Hugo, the famous French novelist and poet (writer of Les Misérables and the Hunchback of Notre-Dame) once said, “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”

The Bible also speaks toward this.

Ephesians 5:11 (MSG) says, “Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.”

Colossians 4:5 (ESV) says, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.”

A verse I really like because how direct it is, is from Proverbs 6:9-11 which says, “How long will you lie there, you lazy person? When will you get up from sleeping? You sleep a little; you take a nap. You fold your hands and lie down to rest. So you will be as poor as if you had been robbed; you will have as little as if you had been held up.”

How can we stop wasting time?

I think one way is by examining and recognizing how much time we actually have every day to do the things we need to do.  For example, in my 24 hour day, I sleep about 6 hours, I spend about 2 hours for eating, and 1.5 hours for traveling.  That leaves me 15.5 hours to do what I need to do, like working, exercising, etc.  It seems like a lot of time, but it really isn’t.  Some of that time is used to the unexpected things, like visits from friends or sudden problems.

So we really need to respect time: the time given to us, the time we give to others, and the time others give to us.

Many people believe it's absolutely necessary that in order to get the best and optimal workout, one must join a gym. NONSENSE I say! That’s certainly not true.

You can have an extremely effective work out wherever you are, and if you are limited with time in your day like I am, this is definitely doable.

Here’s a workout I did today simply at home, actually right outside, in the fresh air and cool of the morning.  This workout WORKS.  How do I know?  Because I’m already feeling the effects of it.  I’m already sore.

110 - Climbers 73 - Pushups 110 - Situps 110 - Squats 390 - Jumping Jacks 70 - Lunges

If you can do all these exercises without resting, then you are in tip top shape.  I cannot.  So instead, I broke these down into manageable, but challenging steps, pushing myself until my body was begging me to stop.  I literally saw “stars”.  At the end of a workout like this, you should be dripping in sweat and not be able to move.  That’s when you know you had a really great, productive workout.

Since my last post regarding 5:2 and “dieting,” I’ve done some adjusting to my approach of losing weight and getting back in shape. Before I go into what my adjustments are, I’d like to explain why I did it.

A simple Google search will show that 5:2 has worked wonders on many. But for me, I just could not maintain it and it wasn’t working out well for me. Simply put, I’m the type of person that needs to eat. I can fast for a full day, but realistically, I cannot do it for an extended period of time. As the week came to a close, I realized that I honestly just couldn’t see myself sustaining this for a long period of time. Also, on the days that I could eat, it seemed that I was compensating for the fasting days...which means I was eating more food than I should.

So, I felt the need to adjust my approach. But how would I do it? After doing some research on the Googenet, I came across an approach called Intermittent Fasting. What is intermittent fasting?

According to NerdFitness.com, “Intermittent fasting is not a diet, but rather a dieting pattern. In simpler terms: it's making a conscious decision to skip certain meals. By fasting and then feasting on purpose, intermittent fasting means eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food during the rest.“

The premise behind this method is that during the intermittent fast, your body is using up the glucose in your system for energy. As time passes during the fast, your body will “run out” of available glucose for energy and will thus start burning through your fat reserves for it. This will lead to fat loss and ultimately weight loss as long as your body doesn’t have excess, unused glucose that it can turn into fat.

This essentially means that if you want good results, you can’t stuff your face with anything you can get your hands after fasting for most of the day. When you are fasting, you are creating a caloric deficit for yourself by limiting the time period of when you can eat, and then making the right choices in what you can eat.

I have been doing this for over a week now and I have had some good results. I have lost about 8 lbs so far. Yes, I’ve had some cravings and my stomach’s been making some noises, but all in all, I’ve been able to control myself from eating anything, BECAUSE, I look forward to eating a nice meal at the end of the day.

Well, well...

Here's my take on the 5:2 after 1 week.

This is a caloric deficit plan. This plan will work if you follow it by eating only the required calories on the given 2 days that you fast AND (and I STRESS the word AND) if you maintain your normal eating habits or minimize the amount of food that you eat. If you gorge on food the other days, then this plan will not work.

This logically makes sense right? Of course it does. If you minimize your caloric intake, you WILL lose weight.

The important question you have to ask yourself though is this: Is this plan something that I can maintain for a long period of time, perhaps the rest of my life. For some it may be. But for me, I'm not so sure...

What I've already realized is this. Much of the food I eat is not healthy. I need to incorporate more vegetables and fruits into my daily eating. I also need to exercise on a daily basis. Not go crazy on the weights, but do some sort of cardio/aerobic activity for at least 30 minutes a day.

Weight: 202.4 lbs Body Fat 25.4%

Look Mom! I already lost 3 lbs! All kidding aside, most of the 1st day's weight loss was probably water. We'll see as time goes on.

The first half of the day was pretty manageable. I ate a DD Egg & Ham English muffin (no cheese) and a medium black coffee. Being busy at the office allowed me to focus on my work and not on hunger. But things changed when I got home around 9pm last night. My stomach was begging for food. So I made myself 2 hard boiled eggs and ate a piece of broccoli and celery. I thought, "Yes this will hold me over until tomorrow morning." I was wrong. It's hard to go to sleep when you're body is craving food. I have a better appreciation for those that do, not of their choosing. I ended up eating 3 matzo crackers. So the breakdown of food I had the first day is as follows:

1. Ham and Egg English muffin 2. Medium Iced Black coffee (no milk, no sugar) 3. 5 baby carrots 4. 1 small beet 5. 1/2 a celery stick 6. A piece of raw broccoli 7. 2 hard boiled eggs 8. 3 Matzo crackers

It's amazing to see how much one eats throughout the day, even if it doesn't seem like a lot.

Working while sitting down most of the day leads to weight gain and getting out of shape. This has been ongoing for a few years now, and my recent trip to the weight scale made it clear to me that I am in dire need of making a change.

After doing some research on the internet, I came across a plan called the 5:2 "diet".  In essence, what this plan is 2 days out of the week, I can only eat at more 600 calories for the day. The other 5 days, I am supposed to eat normally. Obviously, there are questions that arise on whether this plan will work. A google search indicates that there are a bunch of people who have found success. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I will record my findings here over the next 5-6 weeks to see if there has been a positive change.

Oh, here is the video about the plan by the way: VIDEO