A few years ago I had a somewhat eye opening
experience. You see, I’ve struggled with
my weight most of my life, but I always did enough for it not to be a real
issue. Then I graduate from college and
eventually get a desk job and all of a sudden finding time to do anything
physical between an 8 hour workday and a 1.5-2 hour commute is almost
impossible. In high school I weighed
220, in college I was anywhere between 240 and 280, but usually around 250. After college when I was swinging a hammer
for a living I was right around 260. But
within a year of moving off the construction site and into a desk chair I was
290. Even at 290 it didn’t keep me from
doing physical activities. I played
kickball and rode my bike. But at some
point 290 became 315. I stayed around
315 for the next few years and continued to stay there, or so I thought. You see one day about 4 or 5 years ago I went
to the doctor because I was sick, they put me on the scale and it read 342. In my head I said, wait that can’t be right,
I weighed myself just a few days ago and I only weighed 318. Well even I realized the problem, my scale
was broken.
After realizing I was over 340 I decided I needed to start
doing more to lose weight. I would work
out off and on for the next few years losing 5-10 pounds each time. It was always easy to lose that first few
pounds. Although I was never able to get
below 325. Then I would get sick or
something else would happen and I would stop working out and put it right back
on. About 2 years ago I found out I had
diabetes, again I said I need to do more, but again I didn’t really take it
serious enough or would get frustrated that I wasn’t losing weight like I
thought I should and lose interest.
Then something happened.
In April 2016 during our company’s spring walking competition I started
to lose weight and I was losing it fairly fast.
I have always pushed myself usually past what my body would allow to
compete in this thing with my team. I
never wanted to be the weak link. In
past competitions I would lose some weight but my knees would usually slow me
down by the end and I’d have to rest my legs after the competition in order not
to anything worse to my body. Plus I
wanted a break, the competition is serious there is no rest for the month we
compete. But last year I lost 5 lbs. the
first week. Then I didn’t want to lose
my progress so I decided that even though I would get my steps during my golf
trip that I would walk each morning for 30 minutes to pad my daily totals. I didn’t lose any weight that week, but it
was mostly due to the drinking during and after the rounds. I came back and continued the final two weeks
of the tournament and lost another 7 lbs.
Over the summer I slowly started to do less but lost a few more pounds
before the fall walking competition. The
good news is I didn’t put any of the weight back on.
During the fall competition my goal changed from getting the
most steps to using the motivation of getting steps to launch my workout
program and getting the most out of each step I took. So I would still walk each day but I also
started doing the Couch to 5k program.
The running beat up my body more than just walking would, but I
continued through the competition. I
didn’t make it far in the couch to 5k process though and then got sick right
after the competition so I stopped. Add
in the cold of winter and I just didn’t make time. But one thing did happen during the
competition, I dropped below 325, which had been that barrier I couldn’t get
past for the past few years. So one day
this past January or February I started challenging my wife and sister to the
Work Week Hustle in the Fitbit app and had mini walking competitions. I figured it would motivate me to get up and
move and get me ready for this spring’s walking competition. Then out of nowhere my wife decided to start
running again and kicked our butts that week.
So the next week I decided I was going to start the couch to 5k again. I decided I wasn’t going to let work be my
excuse for not working out or the fact that I am not able to access the showers
in the basement unless I pay for a gym membership that is overpriced keep me
from working out. So far my coworkers
have not complained about any post workout body odor.
About a month ago a coworker and I started running during
our lunch break on the National Mall. I
get up and go into the men’s room and change into my running gear. I get looks from all the people in suits who
can’t figure out why I’m dressing in shorts, sneakers and a t-shirt in the
office. I run, come back, and change
into my work clothes in the men’s room.
I imagine it feels a lot like when Superman changes in a phone booth,
only slower. I “shower” with baby wipes
and re-apply deodorant. If only I could
get access to that shower. Anyways we are
on week 4 last week, Mother Nature mucked things up by deciding to take away
our spring like temps and give us winter finally, and it put a halt to the runs. However this week I have started back with
week 4, the runs are longer and more challenging but this week I felt better
during the runs and had more energy.
However I did need to let my body recover some yesterday, but will be
back out today. 300+ pounds is a lot for
your joints to take but every week that number gets smaller.
The reason I decided to write about this today is last week
I got on the scale and it read 314.9. I
finally made it back down to the weight I thought I weighed when I stepped on
that doctor’s scale 4 or 5 years ago. My
goal is to break 300 by the end of this spring’s walking competition. I plan to attack the walking competition with
an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Using
the mantra that Jim Harbaugh uses with his football team, “Today will be better
than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today.” My overall goal for now is to get down to
250, but getting to 315 was a big deal because I have now lost 30 pounds in the
last year, hopefully I can say 45 in the next month. As of yesterday I am down to 313.
I should also mention that working out was not the only
reason the weight has dropped. About 6
months ago I started to cut back drastically on the amount of beer I drank
during the week. That was the main
reason I dropped weight prior to beginning my workouts. It also helped that while I was sick back in
December I cut my portions down because I didn’t feel like eating. Since then I have been able to keep my
portion sizes down so I eat less.
On top of the weight loss I just have a lot more energy. I want to be active and I want to go outside and do stuff. Plus if there is ever a Zombie outbreak like in The Walking Dead, I'll be able to run a little farther and a little harder to get away.
I also hope someone reads this and says hey that is what I’m
struggling with, I hope that person realizes that it’s not too late to start
and finds their motivation to lose the weight.
Once I get the next 15-25 pounds off I have a couple boxes full of
clothes that will fit again, it will be like going on a shopping spree for
clothes without spending a dime. I also
will be dressing in clothes my 24 year old self thought was cool so maybe I
will buy new stuff. If you are working
to lose weight I wish you the best of luck.
