So Far So Good... Part 4

If you focus on the results...

...you will never change.  But we are a results driven culture. A google search of "quotes about results" netted over 1 billion results. What's more interesting is, finding all of those quotes took Google less than a second. .65 seconds to be exact. If Google's display of how many results to a search there are and how long it took to gather them is any indication of how driven we are to see result, and see them now, I don't know what is.

This is often how we view self progress. We focus on were we want to be and often forget to think about how much work it will take to get there and how long it will actually take.

I was one of those people focused on the results. I wanted that instantaneous change. I wanted to drop my body off at a gym and pick it up when it was ready.  My first weigh-in of the fitness challenge, I lost 3 or 4 pounds. It was a weird mix of encouragement and discouragement. I was encouraged to see that I had made a little bit of progress. I was discouraged that I wasn't where I wanted to be in a week and, frankly, didn't look any different in the mirror. I looked the same, I felt tired and hungry and sore.

If you focus on the change...

...you will get results. My wife, encouraging as always, helped me change my perspective. Another week went by and I lost more weight. So far, I didn't have to pay in $1 for every pound gained, per the rules of engagement. A couple people had paid in, so that was encouraging. And I was making progress. It wasn't showing in the mirror quite yet, but the scale said I was making progress. I began to focus on what was changing and what I needed to do to make it happen. 

After a few more weeks, I continued to lose more weight. I still din't feel like it showed when I looked in the mirror, but there were little things I noticed. My pants fit better. My shirts started to look baggier. I even FELT better. Much to my wife's delight, I stopped snoring. These were little changes that became noticeable and I began to focus on this things to encourage me, as opposed to where I wanted to be and how far away I still was from it.

What are you training for?

I had set my goal to lose 30-40 pounds. I weighed in at 225. I would consider it a win to get under 200. I had six weeks to do it. As each week passed, it became easier and easier to get up in the morning. I lost weight every week of the challenge. I ran, perspired uncomfortably, gasped for breath, ran and perspired some more. 

At one point as I did my sprints on my road, one of my neighbors asked, "What are you training for?" "Just trying to lose some weight," was my response. Which I vaguely recall was met by a weird look. But I didn't care. I was making a change. A change, if you had asked me a few weeks earlier, I didn't think I had the heart to make.

As it turned out, coming in to week 5 of the challenge, I was among the front runners to win. A dark horse, if you will, because no one at the office thought I'd take it seriously. I was actually neck and neck with another guy at the office for first place and all the money and glory that came with it. It came as no surprise that I was nervous coming into the final weigh-in.

To be continued...

So Far So Good... Part 3

Motivation comes from many sources...

The big motivator of this new weight-loss challenge was not the better body, the better overall improvement to my health. It was the cash prize. Winner-take-all. Everyone who participated paid a $20 buy-in. There would be a weigh in every week for 6 weeks. You paid in an additional $1 for every pound you weighed more than the week before. Almost the whole office joined in. I'm not great at math but I did know that meant a significant payout to the winner.

Money aside, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my family as the true biggest motivator. My wife and child were relying on me to be around for a long time. My wife and I always joked that we wanted to be married 80 years (coining our own phrase of "80 or bust"), but the way I had been taking care of my health would get me to 50 years old, if I was lucky.  They needed me, and I needed them. And if I was going to meet those expectations, I needed to make a change.

I wanted to feel good about myself. I wanted to feel good about the way I looked. There's a lot to be said for being comfortable in your own skin and not using vanity as a motivator for weight loss. But my skin was home to an unhealthy amount of fat, that if left unchecked, would contribute to a young death and then my skin would be left to a mortician to beautify before my funeral. At this point, I didn't want to look skinny and I didn't want to look "ripped". I just wanted to look healthy.

Abs start in the kitchen

After my horrible first run (please share in my misery here), I punished myself on another front; my eating.

My diet to that point consisted of cheeseburgers, donuts, lots of carbs, lots of sugar, in very large quantities, every day, for a few years now. It didn't help that my wife was (is) an amazing cook who tended to cater to my taste in fats and carbs. It also didn't help that we were young parents and the easiest meals were highly processed foods. But that was all going to change.

My biggest challenge was portion control. I took a tip from one of the other guys doing the challenge, too. He was going to portion out his food to the size of two fists. No second helpings either. I felt like I was starving much of my first week on that plan. It was not a good feeling. It was another series of moments of asking myself if feeling this way was worth it.

The type of food was another challenge. I needed to eat clean, in other words, cut out the processed crap. I began eating whole grain breads (because, you know, carbs), fruits and veggies and lean meats. But coming from a diet of those fat-filled, sugar-filled, goodness-filled, meals, it was quite an adjustment. My wife's cooking skills did make eating those types of foods still palatable. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want mac'n'cheese instead of grilled chicken and broccoli.

I distinctly remember going out with my wife and our friends to a southern barbecue joint for dinner. I salivated thinking of the aforementioned mac'n'cheese, cornbread and brisket plates that were available. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to be making these healthy decisions consistently in order to end up where I wanted to be.

Just keep swimming running

Exercise is hard. You intentionally make yourself hot, sweaty and out of breath. As in, you have a choice to not feel like that, but instead you choose the former.  It takes a strange person to consciously make that choice. But, strange as it made me, I chose to exercise. More specifically I chose to run.

My workouts varied. Some days I just ran for distance. Some days I ran sprints up and down our street. Every day sucked. Some days sucked less than others but they all sucked.

But I kept at it. Not every day, but I was consistent, running about 3 days a week, which was 3 days more per week than I had run in the past 5 years or so.

The more I ran, though, the better I felt. The more I ran, the more empowered I felt. My confidence increased with my training volume. Even during my desperate gasps for air during my workouts, I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. I was DOING this.

That's great. You ate better, you ran more. Well, what happened?  Did you lose any weight?

Of course the story is...

...To be continued...

So Far So Good... Part 2

New beginnings...

It was time for something new. I had joined a weight loss challenge! - read about how I got there

I woke up encouraged. I remember putting on my old running shoes. Shoes that had carried me on several, too many to count, sprints and workouts during high school.  As I laced up my shoes, I felt even more encouraged. I was going to make a change. I was going to lose weight. I was going to become a healthier person. I remember thinking I'm a sprinter but I've run distance before, I can do this.  I may not like it, but I can do it. It may have been 5 years since I've run further than from the couch to the refrigerator but this should be no problem. What's more, I'll become a little more like the specimen I was in high school. I remember the morning being cool as I stepped outside. I felt refreshed. A whole life change was in front of me!

My plan was to just run for 20-ish minutes. 10 minutes out, turn around and come back. After a light warm-up I began to jog down my road. At the end I turned right to a paved country road. The trees lined either side and the leaves rustled softly with occasional morning breezes. I continued on. The road began to rise with a slight hill. My breathing quickened. My legs began to feel weaker. I could feel my heart beating hard. The hill continued and continued. My jog slowed, and slowed and slowed and became a walk, no, more of a trudge. I had made it maybe 1/4 mile and I couldn't run anymore.

I remember very few times of feeling more discouraged than I did at that moment. I can't do this. I'll never be what I once was. I'll always be overweight and unhealthy. This discomfort doesn't feel worth it.

With these discouraging thoughts running through my head, I found myself still walking, and, to my surprise, at the top of the hill. I thought about the family I had that were counting on me to be around for them. Even better, I thought about the cash prize for this weight-loss challenge I joined. I thought about my former self, the athlete that would have given up, even when the workout was hard. I went from a walk back to a slow jog.

I walked and jogged my way back home. I still felt down. I remember my wife asking how my run was. It sucked. It was hard. I hated it. I felt like I might die. But I'm glad I finished it.

To be continued...

So Far So Good... Part 1

Can you think of a moment that has changed your life? I can think of a few that have changed mine, between getting my first job, getting married, the birth of each kid and a few more. But one in particular sticks in my head.

Ironically, I don't remember the date, the day of the week, or even the month. I just remember the moment - the moment I signed up for a weight loss challenge at work. It changed my life. Not right away, but it was the start of a much bigger journey, one that I didn't even realize how life changing it would be.

Let's start at the beginning...

..Or at least somewhere close to it. I was active growing up. I played sports in high school. I worked out a lot, and could eat whatever I wanted. Then college hit and I stopped being active almost completely. My eating habits didn't quit, however. I still ate what I wanted and the pounds quietly crept up on me, overtook me and brought their friends.

As I began to realize (a bit too late) that I needed to make a change, I found myself making shallow attempts at changing my habits. Mostly I'd get up an extra 15 minutes early in the morning, do a couple sets of push-ups, sit-ups and squats and go about my day. I didn't join a gym, I din't change my eating, I made minimal efforts to change. I still didn't really feel like anything was (too) wrong.

Turning point #1

There's a minor turning point that came in the doctor's office. Routine check-up. I had always been a lender kid. I struggled in high school to bulk up as much as my football coach ideally wanted. I had always been about 170 pounds at MOST on a 5' 8" frame. As I stepped on the scale at the office, the first number that showed up was a 2. It hit me hard. I knew I was heavy, I knew I wasn't being as active as I should be. But now I was over 200 pounds. About a half hour later I walked out knowing I had high cholesterol AND high blood pressure as well. I knew I needed to make a change, but how?

Turning point #2

It wasn't until later (weeks or months, I don't remember) my office announced they would run a weight-loss challenge. There was a prize and everything. With my recent medical news in the back of my mind I pondered doing the weight-loss challenge. Even then I was leaning towards not. I texted my wife to let her know about the challenge. There was a $20 buy-in. If I did it, I was invested. Extra motivation to win? But what if I didn't win? Then I was out $20. My wife pointed out that what's $20 if I was able to get healthier. With her gentle nudge and a little more peer pressure at work, I signed up.

Great, now I was $20 poorer and I actually needed to give some effort to losing weight. Now what?

To be continued...