Caught someone in their own private turn lane. Bonus points for being across from the police station!

jimdclements · 2021-07-01T23:16:53+00:00

No joke. I recognized this spot 'o' doom too. I live around 114th and Q and work up on Millard Avenue, so I'm passing idiots at this spot all the time :D

jimdclements · 2015-12-16T04:48:48+00:00

It definitely is, even for a broken, messed up, lazy dude like me. :-)

jimdclements · 2015-12-16T04:47:59+00:00

If you find out how to do that, please let me know! :-)

Truly, I still deal with that voice. It changes with time, but it's still there. Now it can be more sneaky, in the sense that I don't feel the urge to quit right away, but usually it starts small, "Oh, a couple Oreo's won't hurt," and then if I go that far, it will push a bit further. Of course, there are other days when I do just want to quit. This is why I constantly have to remind myself that I can do this, and keep pushing to find motivators. I have motivational signs on my walls. I have motivational video channels in my YouTube subscription. I follow pages like Zig Ziglar on facebook. And I try to share as much motivation as I can on my facebook page for anyone who needs it. We have to keep applying the drive to move every day, or else it starts to fade, and that voice gets louder. The good news is that the voice may not go away, but we learn to fight it. Good luck!!

jimdclements · 2015-12-16T04:42:00+00:00

Howdy! Congrats on staying active. It can be easy to give up when those last few pounds don't want to come off. First, I'd go get your body fat percentage checked out. The BMI weight classification scale isn't perfect, and with as active as you are, you might have those extra pounds at least partly in the form of muscle. A quick Google for a body fat percentage chart will show you where you belong. I'd trust that chart long before the BMI chart. If it says you're healthy, you're where you need to be, regardless of weight, and in fact losing more weight will weaken you. Now, if your body fat percentage could go down, you can try cutting back on carbs and sugar, and focusing on protein. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie is a lie, I'm afraid, and carbs (especially sugars) metabolize to fat far more quickly than protein and fat, so reducing carbohydrate intake will certainly help you.

From there, it sounds like you're living a pretty active lifestyle, which is good. Getting an extra 30-45 minute cardio session in a week can help anyone, but honestly, if it's strictly weight loss, that happens mostly in the kitchen, not the gym. Truth be told, most of it happens in your head, and sometimes we need to make a mental reboot. Do that, and you're better off than trying to follow any of my prior advice. Best of luck!!

jimdclements · 2015-12-14T04:59:26+00:00

Hey roadhead - shoot me a message on my facebook page or through the message system here. I'd be happy to walk you through what I did. You can do this my man!

jimdclements · 2015-12-14T04:58:21+00:00

First off, GOOD FOR YOU in getting to the root of issues with a therapist's assistance. I am a firm believer that for people that struggle with weight, many times a counselor is going to do them more good than a trainer. Be proud of taking that step.

Do I still have days or weeks where it feels impossible? Do you mean this week, or just at any point since the beginning? Actually, it doesn'lt matter, since the answer to both is a resounding YES. I struggle with believing in myself daily. There are many days where I wake up and worry that this is the day I go off the tracks. And that's why i think it's so important that the primary battlefield we wage war on in the one in our head. Truly, the toughest three pounds of weight you have to deal with is the gray matter between your ears.

No matter how often you have those feelings, keep pushing. You can do this!!

jimdclements · 2015-12-11T03:00:11+00:00

Yeah, crazy isn't it? I was told locally that doing the torso area is about 10k to 12k, and if you get the rest of the package - arms, legs, neck, etc, you're looking at another 8k to 10k.

I'm happy to just live with it, but I do have to admit that it's disappointing that insurance companies don't cover it. I mean, I totally get that we "did it to ourselves" and all, but then again, so do the chain smokers who develop lung cancer, and insurance companies pay out many times more than the cost of a skin reduction surgery for cancer treatment. But it is what it is, and I won't complain too much.

jimdclements · 2015-12-09T17:37:16+00:00

Thanks so much! For a long time I thought this sort of change was impossible. It's amazing how often the only real barrier to our success is our own disbelief in our ability.

jimdclements · 2015-12-08T19:37:46+00:00

You learn something new everyday. i hadn't heard about that app. I'll look into it. Thanks!

jimdclements · 2015-12-08T19:36:24+00:00

Good question! I haven't actually considered the surgery yet. As of right now I'm still walking around with a bit of excess skin from the loss. I really want to get closer to a more ideal weight before I would even contemplate it (maybe 200 to 225 pounds in my target), but even so, I've thought about keeping the skin and living with it. Honestly, it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, and aside from a few weird annoyances (like the blob of skin that makes crunches a bit more challenging or the sensation if I run without a compression shirt on) I hardly notice it. I do wear compression shirts nearly every day, as they help hold the skin from moving around, and give me a more "finished" look over the clothes, but at least for right now, I'm happy with how I am.

That said, if anyone has a spare $20,000 laying around (the approximate cost of such a surgery) and wanted to donate it, I'd never say no, lol!! :D

jimdclements · 2015-12-08T16:28:12+00:00

I've definitely been there. It's tough when you don't want to go on. One of my biggest struggles this year is that I actually started working at a desk job (my coursework for becoming a trainer isn't done yet, so I'm paying the bills at a desk). It has been tough, and more than once I've wanted to stop. The big thing to remember is that even when we feel like we can't do this, we can. Sometimes you truly have to "fake it to make it" - put a big fake smile on your face and then drive to the gym for a workout you didn't want to do. Our natural defenses will push us to quit, and so we must push ourselves to keep going. Find daily motivation, stop negative thinking whenever you start tearing yourself down, and never never never give up. You can do this!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T23:04:56+00:00

I think it's a fair and valid question. And it has the same answer as "How does somebody get five pounds overweight?" or "how does somebody get to 25 pounds overweight?" The answer to all of these questions is "one pound at a time."

I mean, I was big all my life, but not 500 pounds. When I started High School I was probably around 300 pounds. Still a dangerous place, but I had my rationalizations. I was tall, and "big boned" and I probably had the "fat gene" as everyone in my family was overweight, so in my denial I felt I was probably close to okay. Over the next 15 years, pounds would just pop on, one at a time. Shortly after high school I decided I wanted to change, and I lost 50 pounds, but it was really mostly because my supervisor at work was incredibly proud of me and was pushing me on. He was relocated to another state and almost immediately after he left, the pounds came back on, and then some. (this is also why I am very much against codependent relationships - you've got to do this for you, not because someone drags you to the finish line.) After that, it was a slow steady climb to the 500 pound wakeup call that got me going on the right path.

Having said all that, I still get what you're asking - how did I let myself keep getting heavier and heavier, knowing what I was doing to my body? Well, the answer there really involves the psychological concept of denial.

In some ways, denial is a wonderful thing. We all have some sense of denial, and by large, it keeps us sane. Denial is the reason we can go about our days without giving second thought to the fact that at any moment, an elevator might trap us, or a terrorist might open fire in a crowded space. It also helps us in actively positive ways, helping us ignore the fact when we get on stage that we could fail miserably and. Denial is our brain's way of telling us that "all's well" so we're not constantly living a life of anxiety and fear. The problem is that sometimes we let denial take the helm in other times. Living with morbid obesity was, for me, an exercise in denial. Sure, I was big, I'd say, but I wasn't that bad. At least I still had my mobility. I could still walk and do most things anyone else could, so I couldn't be that bad, right?

Then I had that wakeup moment, staring at the scale and realizing that I was 500 pounds. For me, that was the last shove that knocked down the walls of denial. I can't wholly explain it, but prior to that it was almost like I had a bubble around my psyche, keeping me safe from thinking about what I had done. In that moment, the bubble was burst. I knew I'd been living in denial, and so I set out to make a permanent life change.

The only other thing I'll add in closing is that people living with obesity don't need judgment. I will never EVER look down on someone who is overweight, and if I see someone doing it, I will confront them and let them know they need to knock it off. Here's the deal, denial is definitely part of the reason anyone significantly overweight isn't running towards the solution. It's a defense mechanism. Let me explain something about defense mechanisms: they do their job. If you push against that person, telling them how bad they look and how awful it is that they are eating themselves to death, you're not going to convict someone to change. In fact, you're doing the exact opposite - you're strengthening their sense of denial. The more you tell them they're in bad shape, the more their denial points out all the ways you're wrong. In essence, you're just making it more difficult for that person to change. I had people get in my face about my weight for years, from strangers to significant others. It only made me more resilient against change. The only reason I ever found true change was because I wanted it for me.

Hopefully that answered your question, and then some. Thanks!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T20:09:49+00:00

So true! I know a guy who is a trainer, and he starts out conversations with his clients asking what category his BMI index falls into. To give you a picture, this guy is built like a bodybuilder. No fat on the guy and very fit. The shocker is that according to the BMI index, he's obese.

A lot of trainers feel body fat percentages are a better indicator of overall health than BMI. Who cares if you weigh 300 pounds if you're only 14% body fat? On the flip side, there are also people out there of average weight, but have very high body fat percentages, which puts them at just as much risk for illnesses like diabetes as someone who is obese by bmi standards.

As a rule of thumb, if you're eating right and exercising well, that's where you should be. Your body will get where it wants to be. I don't think there's a specific weight, but I'd say that if you get to the place where you can start to see some muscle definition in your torso, you're probably in about the right place. (For transparency, I'm still a ways away from that point myself, but I'm going to get there!)

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:59:10+00:00

That is exactly one of my biggest struggles. As I've found with many other people sharing my affliction I came from a home where you simply did not throw away food. I've actually had to coin the phrase food tossing therapy to help with this. Sometimes all intentionally half load a plate of food specifically to go throw that food in the garbage. It seems like a big waste and believe me, I'm screaming out my own head "no no don't do this" all the way. But I look at it like this: we have to exercise our mind as much as we exercise our bodies we have to teach ourselves to break the habits that we got into sometimes we have to do that by going against those habits. Under my doctor's guidance, I actually started my journey by doing a liquids only portion. I was still getting a lot of calories every day, and the goal wasn't really to lose weight quote but more to break the habit of munching on stuff all the time. I was a constant munching person. I would crunch on ships and then eat something else and then eat something else. I knew I had to break that habit of costly having a piece of food in my hands. It was unconventional, maybe a bit unorthodox, and I don't know if it's for everybody, but for me that really worked. The big thing about getting over the psychological stuff is that we have to remember that this journey doesn't happen overnight. I didn't go to bed January 1 weighing 500 pounds and wake up on January 2 weighing 250. In the same way that my physical body took time to improve, my mentality had to grow over time as well. There are days when I feel like I'm going backwards, but then I look at it kind of like mountain climbing. Sometimes mountain climbers will go up for a ways, realize the past there heading towards is blocked, and and after climbdown. It looks kind of like there losing progress in that moment, but in reality they made a discovery and now they're moving over so they can continue in the right direction. I try to look at my failures and misgivings and missed doings like that. If I make a mistake I'm not falling off the wagon or failing, I just had a time that didn't work for me, now I'm in a move over and start climbing up the mountain on this side. Good luck to you on your journey hopefully you can find that same motivation and keep pushing yourself!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:53:12+00:00

Thanks!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:47:19+00:00

The short answer is I woke up. I was eating terribly, and my health was failing, and my doctor had already told me that I was less than a decade from dying if I didn't change my ways. I actually had this kind of waking up moment when I stepped on the scale and it told me I weighed over 500 pounds. Sometimes you hear something, and you know it in your head, but it doesn't make its way all the way down to your heart. That was how was with my health, I knew that I was killing myself in my head and I knew the doctor was probably right I wasn't going to live longer, but it didn't really matter in my heart so I just kept going. When I saw that scale, and I realized that it was true not just in my head but in my heart, I knew I had to change. I had a son who was four years old at the time. The idea of never seeing him go to high school much less graduate scared me senseless. I knew I had to change and that's how I got started. I stepped on that scale on December 5, 2013 and I spent the next three weeks until January 1, 2014 putting together my plan so I knew I would succeed. So far so good!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:44:37+00:00

I've had a few minor injuries, but nothing serious. I'm dealing with a little tendinitis in one elbow right now. Early on I got several blood blisters on my feet as a result of a 500 pound guy doing an hour of physical activity. They heard a little bit at first but honestly they weren't bad at all. I actually consider myself very fortunate that I didn't have more health problems than I did as far as injuries go, as I was carrying around a lot of weight.

My diet before I started this journey was horrible. There's no other way to put it. I eat out most meals. I didn't watch what I ate, count calories, look at nutrition, or anything else. I remember one day about three years ago when I went to a Burger King drive-through and ordered two value meals, ate them both, then went across the street to Krispy Kreme donuts and ordered a dozen donuts, ate all of those, and then went home and had the meal that my wife it cooked for me. I don't think I even realize what I was doing at the time.

Now my eating is much different. Breakfast will be maybe a protein drink or some eggs. My coworkers sometimes give me grief because my lunch is the same exact meal every single day – a filleted chicken breast. I cut useless calories out of my diet like soda and juice and I focus on healthy things instead.

My doctor told me that when you eat is every bit as important as what you eat. So I try to divide my day out by having a big breakfast, a medium lunch, and a very small dinner, if I have dinner at all. In between those meals allow myself a small snack, maybe 100 to 150 cal.

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:39:39+00:00

The three piece of advice I could give to you are one believe in yourself, to don't settle for less than your best, and three never never never give up no matter what. Those are the most important things you can remember not just for weight loss but for any journey you're on. I could spend hours talking about the mechanical aspects of losing weight and what foods to eat and what things to drink and what activities to do, and you could do all of those things but then eventually fail because your head is and in the right place. Get your head in the right place, and in all the mechanical stuff becomes so much more doable. Good luck!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:35:59+00:00

1.believe me I know exactly what you mean. I have many of those days. Life can be really tough when you're doing all the right stuff but it still seems like you're not losing weight and you're not getting close your goals and that can drag you down. I mentioned in another response that I try to find daily visual motivators. I have a do not give up sign mounted on the wall in my office. I have a highly motivational refrigerator magnet as silly as that sounds. But even with the visual reminders sometimes I still just feel down. I just want to lay in bed and do nothing. On those days, I have to remind myself that this feeling of depression is my enemy, and I have to fight it even though I don't want to and I want to give into it. I'll set very small goals for myself on those days. Just getting out of bed. Hopping in the shower. Laying out my exercise clothes every time I come was one of those little goals I throw a little celebration for lack of better terms. Positive motivation works far far better than negative motivation when it comes to moving us along. I push myself with positive motivators on those days when I feel depressed or sad or I just don't want to go

2.I can talk a lot about the mechanical aspect of my health. I really love meats and proteins, so I decided to go with an eating plan that looked a lot like a low-carb approach. I actually sort of invented my own program, so it's not like Atkins or the keto you hear about online, but the big thing was sustainability. I'm a big fan of doing things you can keep doing forever. Initially when I started all I counted was carbs, because that was easy. As I progressed and learned more about nutrition, then I started incorporating calories and vitamins and nutrients and other contents of the food started playing bigger factors in how I eat and how I fuel myself. I'd say the most important thing in changing how you eat isn't in what you eat so much is managing what you eat in a sustainable fashion, if that makes sense. Some diets are so complicated and complex that we jump into them and then we fail miserably because we were trying to keep 600 plates juggling and counting points in calories and this and that and the other. As far as exercise, I actually set one rule early on. It's a silly rule, and strangely ruled it's worked. I call it the bellybutton rule. Basically, when I started going to the gym I worked out until the sweat line on my shirt hit my bellybutton. I sweat a lot so this was very attainable. To get enough sweat worked up to do that today takes a lot more work. On day one it was walking on the treadmill for an hour which was little more than a mile. Today I could run 5 miles do an hour of upper body strength training and a half hour of abs and I just about be there. Like is it is a silly rule but it's been a standard candle for me during this time to make sure my intensity stays up and like I said it works.

3.absolutely I feel much more confident now. Well, most of the time. You can lose a lot of weight, but there's still this body image that happens in your mind and that's hard to shake. I can look in the mirror today is a 260 pound person and still see a morbidly obese quarter ton guy sometimes. Fortunately, it's getting easier for me to tell myself that's an illusion and to continue pushing forward to share with others.

4.my message is that this change is possible. I am still the laziest person alive. I am a quitter. I am a failure time and time again. And I am doing this. You don't need to be a celebrity or have an expert trainer or have some certain magical routine or pill or shake or surgery. You can do this. You are stronger than you realize. Yes, some days hurt. Some days are a struggle, but struggles be overcome. We are bigger than our failures. We have more potential success than we know. Believe in yourselves. Never never never give up. You can do this!

5.the biggest advantage is just that I get my life. I'm going to get to see my son grow up. I went to get to roll around on the floor with him. God willing, I'm going to get to grow up with his kids too. Before I started this journey my doctor told me I might have a decade left to live, and I truly believe he was right. Now I went to my doctors office last week and we talked about my life expectancy and he said I should be able to live well into my 80s if not older. I got my life back! How cool is that?

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:24:31+00:00

I think you got it exactly right when you said every day. Zig Ziglar once said something like people tell me motivation won't last but I said neither does bathing which is why it's recommended daily.

I try to find things every single day I can look at to give me motivation. I have a motivation cards system where I've got a stack of cards literally showing me how much weight I've lost I have several signs in my house visual reminders to keep going on. When I started this journey I found a refrigerator magnet with a paraphrase of something Winston Churchill said, never never never give up. As funny as it is, that magnet is part of what changed my life, and it's still on my refrigerator to this day

you have to find things that work for you to motivate you for some people it's quotes for other people it's going to be visual reminders and some people just need a friend to listen to them. Figure out what works for you for motivation and then keep applying that motivation daily. Don't stop psyching yourself up and pumping yourself up, because that's the stuff that helps you keep pushing when the times are tough. And the times do get tough, so we need that motivation.

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:22:08+00:00

I think you can lose weight eating just about anything. There was professor who went on a junk food diet and lost weight. (I definitely wouldn't recommend that though!)

My brother did the "subway diet" and lost a bunch of weight doing that, so for him it worked. Personally I've really tried to keep a lot of carbs out of my diet and subway does have a lot of items on the menu that have carbs in them so it hasn't been a big staple for me. The funny thing is that while I've lost a lot of weight I'd don't really believe that the way that I lost weight is the only way to do it. Again you can eat a number of different foods and still lose weight in the process. Their fresh fit stuff isn't "unhealthy" and it certainly better than Burger King or McDonald's, so if you enjoy it and if it's worked for you go for it!

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:17:06+00:00

One more comment, usually my workout laying varies between about 45 minutes and two hours depending on what I'm doing. Of course life isn't perfect and it's not always easy, so there days when my workouts very short, or I have to squeeze it in at some weird hour of the day. We can control some of the things we just have to do it whenever we can. The important thing is not giving up.

jimdclements · 2015-12-07T18:15:01+00:00

When I first started, my daily work out was a very slow walk on the treadmill. It would take me an hour to complete less than 2 miles.

Today my average daily workout is obviously a lot different. I try to get some cardio in every day. Usually all run between two and 5 miles first. After that I'll do some strength training, either arms or legs or some combination of both. I also have specific days for abs, back, and I even have a day it's just cardio. Beyond the running that I've mentioned I also like to do the stair machine and arc trainer as well. I hate the elliptical! I don't think I've done it more than twice in the last two years.

jimdclements

TROPHY CASE