Throwback Friday, Sidelined, and The Letter D

We have a lot to cover in today’s post and only a little bit of time. Let’s get right to it!

Sidelined

I haven’t really brought it up much in the last few days because I don’t want to be a whiner, but I’ve been sidelined since Wednesday. I haven’t been able to workout at all! YUCK! Back in the day I would have loved any excuse that got me out of pumping iron or running a few miles, but it looks like things have changed because I feel like a slug from my current lack of activity. (more…)

Big C, Little C, These Words Cause Catastrophe

Alas, there is not a story of forgetting my pants in this blog post. If that’s what you’re looking for you can go back in time and relive it with me. As a matter of fact there isn’t much of a story at all to go along with today’s post. Today is all business and all about spring cleaning. Have you started yet?

I will tell you that as I sit here pounding this out on the keyboard my dog is barking at his own reflection in the sliding glass door. That reminds me, I still need to come up with a creative, non-demeaning way to let him know that he’s getting neutered next week. I was thinking of giving him a Mounds bar because sometimes you just don’t feel like having nuts. Wait! I just remembered that dark chocolate kills dogs so maybe that’s not a good gift… any suggestions are appreciated. (more…)

Get Rambo-ed Up!

Every morning when I wake up and head off to the gym I feel a little bit like a man on a mission. Now I haven’t seen Rambo: First Blood in ages, but I still vividly remember the scene in the movie when he’s getting ready to go beat the hell out of some bad dudes. It’s shot after shot of him strapping some insane piece of artillery to his calf, thigh, bicep, or wherever else he can. He sheaths like 27 knives and loads 19 different guns with 15,000 rounds of ammo each. He literally becomes a one man army. He and I are basically the same person. (more…)

Day 203: My Personal Impact on the Local Fast Food Economy

I think I may be personally responsible for the demise of the fast food economy in Utah County, Utah (yes our county name is the same as our state name). This morning I slept later than usual. My body is still trying to adjust to the new Tuesday, Thursday 4am wakeup time. Because I slept late I didn’t get my snacks or lunch together and basically figured I would get whatever I could on the road today. Great plan if your goal is to gain weight by the way. I went to school and hit the books for a few hours and then it was time to head to work.

I knew that I could get a protein bar from the convenience store near my job so I stopped in and walked to the back corner where there is one shelf full of semi-healthy snacks. As I was digging through the snacks and reading the nutrition labels the store manager, Ty, walked up to me and started a conversation. It went a little something like this:

Ty: Hey man where have you been? We thought something must have happened to you. We haven’t seen you in here forever!

(I literally used to go this place 4-5 times a day and when I quit drinking soda and eating candy I really didn’t have another reason to go back. When I pump gas I just pay at the pump now).

Me: Oh you know, just busy I guess.

Ty: But everything’s good, nothing happened to you right?

Me: Yeah I’m good man, better than ever.

(All of a sudden I saw his eyes get big when it hit him).

Ty: Hey, you’ve lost like…A LOT of weight haven’t you?

Me: Yeah, some.

Ty: Good for you man…maybe laying off the candy bars helped a little huh?

Me: *smiling* Yeah, you’re probably right. Have a good day Ty!

I grabbed my PowerBar and headed up toward the register. Now that I think about it I didn’t even slow down next to the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or the soda fountain (nothing short of a miracle).

As I left the store I was feeling pretty good about things. I think we all love to get compliments every now and then. Then it hit me; this guy sees hundreds of customers a day. I was in there so often that he was actually concerned for my wellbeing after I missed one day buying my 44 ounce Diet Pepsi.  After not stepping foot in the store for over 6 months he probably thought I was dead, mostly likely from a heart attack or stroke.

Then, just like movie flashback, a flood of memories poured into my mind. I remembered that Del Taco only had 10 extra value meals, but if Juan, Michael, or Rosie were working, I could order a Number 11 and they’d put together my custom extra value meal that I ordered about 3 times a week. I remembered spending 10 bucks ordering strictly from the Dollar Menu at McDonalds. I remembered 130 ounces of soda EVERY SINGLE DAY like clockwork. I seriously believe that the accountants for those businesses could have made their quarterly projections based on my precise patronage and been exactly right every time.

Then one day it all stopped. It wasn’t a phasing out; it wasn’t a slowdown. From one night to the next morning I left it all behind. I said goodbye to all of it. This was definitely not something that the economic experts could have foreseen. I literally broke their algorithm. I made an unexpected change.

What unexpected change will you make today that shocks the system or the people around you? It doesn’t have to be drastic, but a change for the better will have drastic results down the road.

Day 197: What’s in a Number?

The farther down this road I go the blurrier the destination seems to become. Let me explain what I mean a little bit. When I was at 400 pounds I decided that my ultimate goal was to weigh 240 pounds. It was kind of a dart thrown in the dark but the number seemed so far away at that point that 240 was a nice round number. When I started reevaluating where I was at, I decided that 240 wasn’t the number that I wanted. I decided that 220-225 would be a more fitting goal. Heck, according to BMI guidelines I would have to drop clear down to 187 to fit into the “normal” range for my height. I know that 187 is not a healthy weight for me, not if I’m all cut up anyway (which is definitely the plan). Rachel from Body By Pizza reaffirmed my thinking on the matter and she actually worded it way better than I ever could:

‘Tunnel vision’ is a side-effect most of us will experience at some point thanks to the many misconceptions, misinformation, and plethora of stigmata surrounding weight-loss. I am no different. Did you know that the ‘ideal body weight’ for someone of my gender and height is 118-120 pounds? These ‘one size fits all’ ideals crafted by a bunch of suits and medical persona can wreck some serious havoc on the psyche of individuals that fall just outside of the ‘norm’.

I was getting all amped up and refocused about my new weight loss goal and then I got an email from a reader that totally blindsided me:

Question for you, you are always so upbeat and energized and excited about the results you are seeing, have you hit a rut or been at a place where you feel like your just plateauing (however you spell that) where all that hard work and eating just seems to not be getting you the results you think you should have? Thats me this week, for the first time ever with working out I have actually been very frustrated this week. I gained 3 pounds, increased body fat by 3% and my measurements either increased or stayed the same. Yet at the same time I feel better, and I have taken before and current pictures in a bikini and they look better, you actually see a change, so I guess I’m wondering where my body fat is going, and why it keeps going up. I started at 19% body fat now up to 26.3….. What the heck… I believe I am increasing muscle mass but canot get rid of body fat. I feel as though I am eating correctly, and I do now eat 6 small portions of healthy food a day, and drink water. etc…Anyway I just need to vent and am wondering what things you have found helpful to get you through those “tough” times. Any suggestions??

I read the email and was in a bit of shock. As far as I could tell she was doing all the right things but she clearly wasn’t happy with the numbers. I’m obviously not qualified to give her any fitness or nutrition information but I could definitely identify with her. I replied from the heart and I think my response shocked me even more than her email. I totally taught myself something while writing this:

A couple of things: Sorry to hear your having a rough time this week. I’m not really the right person to ask about the body fat increase and such because I’m really not a nutrition or body composition expert by any stretch of the imagination. I also have kind of a hard time comparing you and I because I was waaay fat and that is not your situation at all.

As far as the hitting a rut part or frustration part, I think I might be able to help some. I haven’t had any issue with getting results, but I attribute that mainly to the huge amount of weight I had/have to lose. The program will probably keep working for me as-is until I get to my last 30-40 pounds. Then, I might need to make some adjustments. All that being said, I have been kind of frustrated the last few weeks. I haven’t been able to lift ANY weights for the last six weeks so I haven’t been losing weight as quickly as I had hoped. I’m still steadily going down but because I’m not building the lean muscle my metabolism isn’t as fast.

There are a few things you said that really stood out to me; “I feel better, and I have taken before and current pictures in a bikini and they look better, you actually see a change.” That’s actually a really important statement. I know it’s hard, but what are the chances you are too caught up in the numbers? You’re at a point where you’re fine tuning. You’re not making a huge body transformation. Have you been more stressed lately? Was there anything leading up to your weigh-in that might have skewed your results. Are you always weighing at the same time of day (this was huge for me, I fluctuate as much as 2 pounds during the day). If your inches increased in some areas, were they the right areas? Sometimes more inches isn’t necessarily a bad thing. How are your sleep patterns? These are all factors.

It’s hard not to focus on measurements while you’re trying to improve your image but you know you’re healthier and that’s a HUGE deal. I also think you’re at a point where achieving your IdealShape (see what I did there) is going to take some trial and error. Like I said, you’re at more of a fine tuning stage of your weight loss. Weight Loss requires a certain amount of faith I think. It’s unfortunate because we have a very “results now” attitude as a society, but it’s also fortunate because I think it makes us mentally stronger when we believe in the process and it ends up working for us. Nutrition and fitness experts know the science behind weight loss but all of our bodies are so different. There is going to be some troubleshooting.

HELLO! Areyouserious? Where did that come from? I had never even said that to myself let alone somebody else. Even when Shan at The Fabulous Fatties decided to ditch the scale for good it didn’t really click (at least in my conscious thought). How many of us get totally focused on the numbers and miss the entire point of the journey? We are all trying to get healthier and what’s “normal” for me isn’t necessarily “normal” for you, and vice versa.

All this has led me to one conclusion, I’ll know healthy when I get there. I won’t stop working until I have a confident feeling that I have actually arrived. Once I’ve arrived I’ll do everything I can to stay there. I probably will use things like body composition, the ability to reach fitness goals, and actual health measures like cholesterol, blood pressure, and heart rate as measuring sticks, but ultimately I will ask myself: “Is there anything I can’t do because of my health?” When I can honestly answer that question with a resounding HELL NO, I will know that my goals have been met.