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.
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
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...
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