Confessions of a Mad Fat Man – Part Deux
In the spirit of the title I have to admit that I have a confession to make… I was petrified to write this post. Actually I’ve been petrified to write this post since about… oh… November!
Yeah wasn’t too anxious to give you all the goods on my success (or lack thereof ) after my grand announcement in October that I was going to embark on a weight loss journey. Oh it started enthusiastically enough, I said all the right things, even did the right things – I was keeping track of my calories and watching what I ate – started eating smarter. It was great and it lasted all of 2 weeks.
That’s when the excuses started piling up. “Well it’s October, Halloween is here. How do you expect me not to eat all the kids left over candy” and then it was “Hey man it’s Thanksgiving, you really think I’m gonna miss out on turkey dinners during Thanksgiving! Give your head a shake!” Then Christmas arrived and well… by then everything was out the window. I skillfully avoided any discussions about my blog post. I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and in copious amounts. I pretty much gave up. I was disappointed in myself to be honest and preferred to steer clear of any weight discussions. This went on till the 3rd week of January. Me blissfully avoiding the issues (meanwhile packing on even more pounds) while others around me became concerned. Actually one of our friends happened to ask at a party when my next blog post was going to be (Blast you Will Walton) which I laughed off with a witty comeback, but internally I knew I had done absolutely nothing since the last post.
That’s when what I like to call “the intervention” happened. I like it because it sounds very dramatic and serious and if this was a documentary and not a blog there would be people – family, friends, those dear to me – gathered, unbeknownst to me, in my living room waiting for my arrival to finally confront me on my issues. Raised voices would ensue, harsh words would be said, tears would flow and I would head to rehab full of contrition and anger. Alas this intervention was not quite so dramatic. It basically started with my loving wife carefully mentioning… “so I was talking with your brother…” and I knew immediately what this discussion was going to be about. Graham and Michelle had talked and they wanted me to know that now was the time to do something about my weight. (at one point Michelle even said that when she saw me sitting on the couch the other day I actually looked pregnant! LMAO! which is true, of course she said it in the most loving way possible.)
Michelle didn’t know it at the time but I had quietly stepped on the scales and knew things were not good. In fact much worse! I was now 237 lbs. (last post I was 230) I didn’t tell her at first but later on confessed when she started her own workout sessions and started marking her weight weekly for us both to follow. I should say right now that my wife is awesome. The support she’s giving me is fantastic, she’s setting aside her own schedule to allow me to get in workouts at night while juggling the kids bedtimes and all the other stuff she has to fit in. She does the shopping and the junk food I love is no longer purchased. She quizes me on my portion sizes to make sure I’m not overdoing it and keeps me on track to not eat after dinner (I get the serious stink eye when I do).
This past Monday night my brother Graham showed up at the door to go for a walk. Now you need to understand when I say walk, we’re talking serious power walking here. You know how when you were a kid and you’d walking with your dad and you would have to run along beside him every so often to keep up with his pace? That’s what it’s like walking with Graham even as an adult. His walking pace is my jogging. I think he’s doing like 8km’s an hour. I don’t think I could run 8km’s that fast.
I should point out however he looks absolutely ridiculous when he’s doing it. Here’s something that should give you an idea of what he (we) look like – give a click below…
When I was out with Graham last night I was very clear in that I would only ever be doing this under the cloak of darkness! Nobody would see me doing this in the light of day. The great thing is he doesn’t care how it looks and he really pushes me – Coach Graham.
At the same time my pal Marcus down the street is trying to get back in game shape after tearing his achilles tendon a few months ago and he asked me to join him in a walk/run. He’s doing the thing where you walk for 1 minute and run for 1 minute for a total of 30 minutes obviously increasing the time you run and the total overall time as you progress. He asked me to go on the Tuesday and I was all in cuz I had just been out with my bro the night before and I was freaking sore! Besides he’s still a cripple from his injury and I figured he was more my pace!
… he’s a cripple from his injury and was more my pace!
To date I’ve been out four times this week. Each time has been between 4km – 5km and I’m tracking the time – it’s been around 50 mins each time. It aint easy I tell ya. I took tonight off because I’m just too sore and I need a break. Hopefully I’ll be out tomorrow as well weather permitting.
I’ve also been using a great website for tracking my food intake called www.dailyburn.com
It’s really useful because you can either add your own foods with all the nutritional value or search for the food in their user database. On top of that you can do the same for workouts that you create or find in the website to track. It’s a huge help because when you first start keeping tabs on how much you eat it’s rather astounding (embarrassing) how much you actually pack away. The screen shot below is your nutrition dashboard.
This shot is your detailed listing of the foods you’ve eaten and their nutritional value
The best part of it is that it’s free, if you don’t mind the ads. If you’ve got an iPhone you can download the app to keep tracking when you’re on the move and need to remember what you’ve eaten for the day.
While I wish I was giving you an update on my rip roaring success unfortunately I’m not. However I am being honest in the struggle of the battle of the bulge. I started the week (on Monday) at 237 lbs and while I haven’t weighed in yet I will be doing so this coming Monday. I’m pretty sure I’ve lost some weight as my belt has loosened up one notch. I’ve averaged about 1900 calories per day for the past 5 days and ran/walked about 15-20 km’s so far. To be honest it’s a tough row to hoe. The folks on the Biggest Loser make it look easy and as cheesy as it may sound they are pretty inspirational.
In the end I’m writing this for accountability, so many people mentioned the last post to me, everyone has been so encouraging. Making it public makes it difficult to avoid, I mean if Toronto Mayer Rob Ford (www.cutthewaist.ca) isn’t able to do it he’s gonna lose his voters. I’ll just lose face (heh heh). Plus, my kind brother Graham has decided to start posting our results and possibly (shudder) pictures on his facebook page. I figure I’ll be preemptive and get the word out before him.
So you all can expect a short post on Monday or Tuesday after the weigh-in to see if I’ve dropped, gained or stayed the same.
Good or bad, I won’t chicken out this time I promise.
Love, Peace and Hairgrease.
brodg
Good stuff, Brent. My 2¢: if you want, go hard for a few weeks and get a good bump/break some bad habits. But after that, the real trick is to stick with something sustainable – enough (good) food to keep your energy up/your mood positive.
I agree JS. I have a feeling this week will be harder than the last. This is when the reality sets in, where you start to realize this is a pretty much a lifestyle change and a long haul. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for reading!