Most of my adult life, I’ve battled with my weight. Sort of. “Battle” implies that I actually was fighting. It’s perhaps more accurate to say that I’ve rolled over and surrendered to my weight. In a nutshell, I am heavy for one specific reason – I’m lazy. Like most people, when I was younger, I was not overweight, for several reasons:
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Daily gym class
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Participation in organized sports (in my case, cross country running)
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Eating meals at home with a mother who made sure I ate nutriously
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Teenage metabolism which allowed me to have an Italian beef sandwich, large fries, strawberry shake, AND a pizza puff for lunch…and still weigh a buck sixty.
Of course, I don’t have those things available to me any more. Which is why I’m heavy now. Which is why I need to do something about it. For reals this time.
Often times, when discussing weight loss in a blog, etc, people shy away from specifics. We’re overweight and embarrassed about numbers. Well, I’ve decided that it’s not going to do any good to hide these numbers. First of all, I’m not able to hide the fact that I’m heavy, so who do I think I’m fooling? Also, I’m going to work with the concept of the Motivation of Shame – if I am properly embarrassed to have the entire internets know how heavy I am…that should help me when I have to convince myself to not get a Twix out of the vending machine this afternoon.
This is what I looked like when I was 18 - approx 180 pounds
Some reference points – I am 5’10”. When I was in “fighting trim” (aka a distance runner in high school) I weighed about 165 pounds. When I went off to college, I weighed 180 pounds. My “ultimate goal weight” is 190 pounds, give or take.
I worked out pretty hard in the six months prior to our wedding (in 2007) and got my weight down from 234 pounds to 218 pounds. I accomplished this by eating (somewhat) reasonably, working out at the gym with a trainer twice a week, and riding my bike to work semi-regularly.
On June 28 of this year, I stepped on the scale, and that little bastard reported me at 238 pounds.
Yes.
Two hundred and thirty-eight.
That is the most I have weighed in my entire life.
It was time for a change. Again.
This is me in 2007 - approx 214 pounds
The next day, I kicked off the Couch to 5K program (I’ve started it before but never kept up with it). The basic gist of the program is a set schedule of interval training that gets you able to run a 5K on a regular basis. I’m doing it via a helpful podcast, as well as taking advantage of my Nike+ technology to track my workouts. So far I am about halfway through Week 2…and haven’t missed a run yet. Although I’m not really feeling like I’ve accomplished anything until I get to Week 5. Then I know I’ll have stuck to it.
One majorly disappointing experience – after running for a week, I got back on the scale on Tuesday morning. And I clocked in at 243 pounds. For reals! I GAINED five pounds. Although that was probably due to chowing down on ice cream three times over the 4th of July holiday weekend. The good news is, as of this morning, I am down to 240 pounds, so that temporary weight is shedding quickly.
I’m not on any kind of specific “diet” right now – although I’m trying to log my food intake (and fitness activity) using SparkPeople. I’ve used CalorieKing in the past, but decided to try something new this time. I also use Tweet What You Eat to log when I’m not at a computer but need to record food consumption. I figure once I get a handle on recording my intake as a habit, I can start to tweak what that intake is. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not wolfing down Big Macs – I’m trying to, as I like to say, “not eat like an idiot”. But I’m figuring it’s more important to record than to judge right now, if that makes sense.
I also am going to start doing more than just my every other day runs soon – a couple of months ago, my wife and I started Jillian Michaels’ DVD program, the Thirty Day Shred. It’s definitely geared towards women, but I’ll tell you – it’s a freakin’ tough workout. I’m going to try to start doing the Shred on my non-running days starting in two weeks. Keep me honest, people!
And that last bit is what this is all about. I’m going public here. There are a lot of people who read my blog, and I’m hoping that if you all know that I’m doing this, you’ll all be there to be disappointed in me if I fail. Again, the Motivation of Shame (this is the same reason I have my Nike+ set up to update my Facebook status and Twitter with every run). I know I can do this. I know that I’ve started down this path many, many times in the past…but I’m sure I can do it this time. I know if I can make it until September on this “program” I’ll be well on my way.
What do you all think? Am I missing anything? Is there something else I can do to help ensure success?