Running on Awesome

Today’s post is brought to you by Scott Thomson, of YourInnerSkinny.ca.  He is a health and fitness blogger who describes himself as a “Former athlete turned fat man and now former fat man turned health enthusiast.”  After being a competitive athlete most of his life, Scott gained 110lbs in less than two years after college while sitting at a desk as a web designer.  He remained overweight for 6 years until he finally had enough of being fat and lost 100lbs.  Scott now spends his time writing his blog and trying to help others with their weight loss through his honest and open writing about his struggles and successes to keep the weight off 5 years later..

The mic is yours, Scott!  

“Sweat the Small Stuff”

I know the saying is suppose to be “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff” and yes, I think that’s a great way to look at your overall weight loss and a great way to look at life in general, but when it comes to your diet and what put in your body, I like to use the saying “Sweat the Small Stuff” because it’s the small stuff that matters.

If you’re wondering what I mean by “the small stuff”, it’s all the little things that can sabotage your diet and healthy eating without you really even knowing or thinking that they do.  Things like pop, juice, mayo, cheese, salt, coffee cream, salad dressing, bacon, skin on chicken, sour cream, barbeque sauce, beer… The list goes on and on.  You could be busting your ass every day in the gym but if your diet isn’t bang on as well, you’re fighting a losing battle.

My life, as is the case of 90% of the people in the world, is hectic.  Working long hours, painting the house, yard work, commitments to sports teams or committees and everything else that goes on during the week hasn’t left me with much time to workout.  In the past two weeks I’ve gone for a few very short runs here and there, I’m doing the hundred pushup challenge three times a week and I’m trying to kick my own ass at least once a week with a bodyweight workout like this one, but besides that I’m not training like I use and I’m not really getting much exercise in my life.  This is where sweating the small stuff has saved me.

Over the past two weeks, with minimal exercise, I’ve lost 2.5 lbs solely by watching what I eat.  Now when I use the words “minimal” and “solely” please don’t assume that what I did was easy. It’s been a two-week period with no mayo, no cheese, light dressings, no skin on my chicken, portion control, calorie counting and measuring and weighing of my food, but it’s all been worth it.  I’m feeling good, and healthy and it’s literally all because I’ve been watching “the small stuff”.

I’m currently on my second week of the Awesome By August challenge  where I want to lose 10 lbs in 4 weeks.  This is a HUGE goal but by sweating the small stuff I’m already 1 lbs towards reaching it. I know if I want to actually hit my goal, I have to get my ass in gear and get sweating in the gym, but sweating the small stuff and watching what I’m eating is a great place to start.
I could really go on and on about the small stuff and how it really does affect your diet but I’ll give you this one example and end on it.  When I started my weight loss the journey to lose 100 lbs, the first thing I changed was something very small and attainable.  I changed my large Timmies “double-double” (for you non-Canucks, that means a large coffee with two cream and two sugar in it) to a large one milk and one Splenda.  That one change alone helped me lose my first 10 lbs and was the beginning of a new life for me.  Think about that and tell me that one small squirt of mayo on your sandwich doesn’t matter…

You can find Scott at Yourinnerskinny.ca.  He is also on Facebook and Twitter.